Markets in Europe went down on Wednesday because of persisting geopolitical tension.
Tensions over at North Korea seem to not be going away any time soon after the largest-ever nuclear test by Pyongyang on Sunday. A diplomat from North Korea made threats to the United States about delivering “more gift packages” on Tuesday.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 lowered by 0.51 percent a bit after the start of the session, with all sectors and major bourses in the negative.
The increasing tensions surrounding North Korea resulted in a decline in United States stocks as the S&P500 plummeted to its biggest loss in one day in about three weeks. The dollar went down against the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc showing that the broad market is still finding safe-haven assets more desirable.
Investors looked forward to the meeting of the governing council of the European Central Bank. People expect that the meeting will discuss the timing of their departure from their loose monetary policy program.
Over at Asia, markets were also down.
The Nikkei 225 went down 0.14 percent; the Kospi index closed down by 0.29 percent and the Hang Seng index lost 0.64 percent. The Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Composite however gained 0.05 percent and 0.375 respectively.