Wall Street Reels Under North Korea Tensions, Tepid Retail Earnings

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Thursday, with the Dow slipping more than 100 points, as lackluster results from retailers Macy’s and Kohl’s added to investor nervousness over escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea. North Korea said it was completing plans to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land near the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam in an unusually detailed threat. The threat followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning on Tuesday that any threats by Pyongyang would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen”. Investors again sought safe-haven assets such as gold and the Swiss franc, helping gold hit a more two-month high. “When you have a market like we have had this year, and it has been amazingly calm, and you introduce a major source of uncertainty, there is bound to be some reaction,” said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial. Read more at Reuters.