UPDATE — Declares Intention for Atmospheric Nuclear “Test” over Int’l Waters (i.e. Near Guam?) Breaking News – North Korean They Warn The Residents of Guam : DO NOT LOOK AT THE SKY AFTER WE FIRE OUR MISSILES OR “BE BLINDED” BY THE FLASH

UPDATE 10:42 AM EDT–

Stock markets around the world are falling on this news from North Korea with ALL major indices down significantly and falling further:

U.S. equities fell on Thursday as tensions between the United States and North Korea persisted.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell about 130 points with Goldman Sachs and Apple contributing the most losses.

The S&P 500 declined 0.8 percent, with information technology and financials leading all sectors lower. The Nasdaq composite pulled back 1.2 percent, with Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Netflix all trading lower.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, soared more than 33 percent to trade at 14.80.

Symbol	Name	Price		Change	%Change
DJIA	Dow Industrials	21945.38		-103.32	-0.47%
S&P 500	S&P 500 Index	2455.91		-18.11	-0.73%
NASDAQ	NASDAQ Composite	6284.43		-67.90	-1.07%

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said that North Korea would face "fire and fury" if it continued to threaten the States, however North Korea has dismissed these warnings by the U.S. incumbent as a "load of nonsense."

The iShares MSCI South Korea capped exchange-traded fund (EWY), which tracks South Korean stocks, fell 1.7 percent Thursday.

Traditional safe havens have seen solid inflows as tensions have increased. Gold futures have risen nearly 2 percent this week, while the Swiss franc has advanced 0.7 percent against the U.S. dollar.

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"We're through most of the earnings season and the valuations [in the stock market] become a bit problematic when you have something like North Korea come up," said Maris Ogg, president at Tower Bridge Advisors.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Equities, meanwhile, have slipped across the world but hadn't posted a meaningful pullback since the two nations started taking verbal jabs at each other.

The S&P was only down 0.1 percent for the week entering the session. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 index has fallen 1.2 percent for the week.

"Our assumption is that the 'battle of the bombasts' will remain verbal for the foreseeable future and that Guam will drop out of the headlines as quickly as it has been inserted into them," Michael Shaoul, chairman and CEO of Marketfield Asset Management, said in a note.

"It remains possible that we will see another brief lurch downwards, particularly in the technology sector that seems to be the locus of hedging activity, but the chances of this developing into a meaningful correction still looks remote at the current time," Shaoul said.

Guam’s Mayor Eddie Calvo reassured his 200,000 citizens that an attack on Guam is an attack on the United States.

The people of Guam woke up on Thursday to another pointed threat from Pyongyang.

Mayor Calvo (R) said President Trump was correct to threaten a furious response to any attack on U.S. sovereign soil.

Mayor Calvo: “We encourage everyone to go through their lives and live them like you would any other day. As far as I’m concerned, as an American citizen, I want a president that says that if any nation such as North Korea attack Guam, attack Honolulu, attack the west coast, they will be met with Hell and fury.”

Via Tucker Carlson Tonight:

 

UPDATE 11:41 AM EDT —

North Korea has just publicly declared its intent to "test" nuclear devices "in the atmosphere above international waters."  They apparently believe they can call this a "test" fire live nuclear missiles at GUAM, and somehow this won't qualify as an act of war.  They're wrong.

SOURCE