Quick Comments – Stock Market Direction After North Korea Fires Missile Over Japan Again – Sep 14 2017

After markets closed on Thursday, into the early evening here in Eastern Standard Time, North Korea fired a second missile over Japan. The missile launch followed almost the same path as the first North Korean missile over Japan just two weeks prior.

Stock market futures dipped on the news with Dow Futures down 27 points at 10:43 PM EST after being down deeper, shortly after the launch was announced. S&P futures are down just 5.50 points and NASDAQ futures are down 10.75 points.

These are minor dips ahead of the market opening on Friday and will probably change, but we could see the market direction on Friday stay weaker, especially after most analysts expected no further missile testing from North Korea in the face of determined sanctions.

In investing it is often what no one expects that can catch investors. While everyone is aware of North Korea’s dictator, very few people expect anything in the way of direct confrontation. Yet here we are, another missile test in what is a flagrant rejection of the condemnation of their nuclear testing and threats to world peace.

Tomorrow and perhaps more especially next week, we could see a higher degree of volatility in equities as the United Nations must decide how they will proceed next and what if anything, they are actually able to accomplish to defuse what could end up being a very dangerous situation with North Korea.

I will be writing more on this situation for members shortly including a look at the TLT ETF and the outlook for gold and oil.

Disclaimer: There are risks involved in all investment strategies and investors can and do lose capital. Trade at your own risk.