Escalating Geopolitical Tensions Hit European Markets

European stocks were down Thursday as global equity markets digest the escalating military tensions between North Korea and the United States.

Currency movements appeared to cool as investors reversed some of yesterday's "safe haven" flows, which were driven by the dangerously heated rhetoric between President Donald Trump and government and military officials from Pyongyang, and gingerly put cash back into riskier markets.

The yen drifted 0.4% lower from yesterday's levels to 1.1002 against the U.S. dollar, helping to keep the benchmark Nikkei 225 largely unchanged over the Thursday trading session, while the dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of six global currencies, gained 0.12% to 93.74.

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