The US and its allies are getting ready to strike Syria, and the attack could start in the night between Friday, August 30th, and Saturday, August 31th, according to a report, which is pending confirmation.
At this time, global markets will be closed and will open only 48 hours later. This will allow everybody to digest the events before Asian markets open and the strike will not catch them by surprise. Nevertheless, if this report is confirmed and the strike goes through, we could still see significant Sunday gaps, with the current trends strengthening.
The crisis around Syria is dominating the news and also markets. Prices of oil are rising: this is the most obvious move. The dollar is stronger against the commodity currencies, but stable against the euro and generally weaker against the Swiss franc and the Japanese yen this week.
The yen could be the big winner, while the Aussie and kiwi could be the big losers. The Canadian dollar could benefit from higher oil prices.
After some initial moves, markets stabilized, but any breaking news shakes the markets and overshadows economic indicators. The worries about Syria are exacerbating the bond rout in emerging markets, which is mainly driven by the intentions of the Federal Reserve to taper bond buys.
Further reading:
- Investor capital flees emerging markets en masse
- Gold Maintains Recovery Mode
