Gold Rockets Through US$1300

News broke this morning on North Korea launching rockets directly over Japan in what is the most brazen “test’ yet by the rogue nation and described by Japan as a "serious, grave security threat".

The gravity of the incident was not missed by markets.  Gold and silver jumped immediately off an already strong night climbing over 2.2% and the rush to the Yen saw our AUD fall making those gains more pronounced in our local currency.  Wall Street was saved by the bell but futures trading on the Dow Jones has seen over 120 points lost, S&P500 down 0.7% and Japan’s Nikkei suffered a 225 point fall on opening to the news.  The volatility index (VIX) spiked to 14 as well.

Jim Rickards tweeted: “Wasn't sure at first if this was a gold price chart or a missile trajectory. Probably both.”