South Korean and Japanese markets started the opening bell lower; however the rest of Asian markets closed its doors for the international holiday.
The time when the military forces in the United States launched the biggest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan, markets all over Asia settled lower on Wall Street. Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 edged lower by 0.38 percent in previous trade; meanwhile Topix was 0.62 percent down. In South Korea, the Kospi settled 0.45 percent lower.
According to Pentagon spokesperson Adam Stump, the GBU-43 bomb, also known as the “mother of all bombs”, has 11 tons of explosives and is also formally named as the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB). He also stated that this is the very first time the bomb has been utilized in battle.
On currency news, the yen was relatively depreciated by the dollar’s 109.09; it subsequently fell below 108.90 in the early session. However the Japanese currency still remained stronger compared to levels above 110.7 versus the dollar just this week.
On the prior country’s major stocks, shares of Honda motors dropped by 1.37 percent, Toyota motors was 0.89 percent lower, Sony fell by 0.75 percent and Mitsubishi Electric was down by 0.6 percent.
The U.S. dollar index traded lower at 100.58 from its 100.01 earlier. Managing director of foreign exchange strategy at BK Asset Management Kathy Lien said that the U.S. currency took the go signal from yields, intertwining inside and outside of declines and the current geopolitical crisis will still be the center of attention, which got heated up because of the Afghanistan bombing incident on Thursday.
She added that U.S. President Donald Trump has been “flexing his muscles” and investors are getting worried.