USA stocks snap 3-day losing streak in roller coaster week

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 94.55 points, or 0.43 percent, to 21,954.15, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 19.51 points, or 0.79 percent, to 2,454.51 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 76.39 points, or 1.2 percent, to 6,275.94.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed 0.77 percent, on track for its third straight day of declines as it pulled further back from all-time highs. The Nasdaq 100 Index sank 1.5 per cent Thursday while the FANG block of tech giants, including Facebook, Amazon.com, Netflix and Google, tumbled 2.4 per cent.

Japan's Topix index had the biggest slide in nearly three months, falling 1.3 per cent on trading volume 22 per cent higher than the 30-day average at the close.

NORTH KOREA: President Donald Trump warned North Korea of "fire and fury" this week in response to recent threats from Pyongyang, which said it was examining plans for attacking Guam, a US territory in the Pacific with a military base.

"While he did not comment on what he meant by that statement, Trump said that North Korea should be "very, very nervous" if it "(did) anything in terms of even thinking about an attack".

"It reinforces market concerns that inflation is perhaps just not picking up in the way the Fed had been expecting", said Osborne.

The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of major peers, slipped 0.1 percent as U.S. Treasury yields fell. The Russell 2000 index gave up 1.7 percent to 1,372.54. The yellow metal traded at $1,285.64 an ounce at 9:53 a.m. HK/SIN, a tad below the $1,285 level seen Thursday.

U.S. tensions with North Korea rattle markets
Stocks are opening modestly higher on Wall Street, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, led by gains in technology companies and banks. The Canadian dollar was trading at an average price of 78.67 cents United States , down 0.04 of a USA cent.

A snapshot of Guam before US-North Korea conflict and now
His comments came as the speaker of the Guam legislature said he hoped the island could defend itself. South Korean stocks opened lower Friday as North Korea risks continued to weigh on the main index.

Gold steady near 2-mth highs as N. Korea tensions continue
Computer hardware stocks rebounded following recent weakness, with the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index climbing by 1.4 percent. About 7.5 billion shares changed hands on United States exchanges, well above the 6.25 billion average for the last 20 days.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 7 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,467. South Korea's KOSPI was down 1.7 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.8 percent.

Crude oil prices extended their slide as exports from key OPEC producers rose, despite news of lower crude shipments from Saudi Arabia.

The tentative gains "suggest that the headline shock value pertaining to the US-North Korea standoff is starting to dissipate, which is to say actual action will now speak much louder than words", said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

Gold prices XAU= rose 0.2 percent to $1,287.30 an ounce, after surging over 2 percent in the previous two sessions to a two-month high.

Winners and Losers: Live-events company Live Nation saw its stock climb more than five percent Thursday on news that concert ticket sales jumped 22 percent from a year ago. On Thursday, it logged its biggest one-day percentage loss since April 18, when a "snap" United Kingdom general election was called.

ArcelorMittal, Rio Tinto, Glencore, Antofagasta, Anglo American, BHP Billiton and all fell 2.3 to 4.5 percent.

Oil prices fell during the Asian session despite an updated forecast from OPEC showing that demand could increase by around 200,000 barrels a day for the next two years. It is poised to end the week down 1 percent.