European Stocks Hit by Rising Geopolitical Tensions

European stocks fell sharply across the board Wednesday as investors around the world piled cash into safe-haven assets amid increasingly dangerous rhetoric between North Korea and the United States.

The U.S. dollar, which gained against both the euro and the pound in overnight Asia trading, trimmed its advance as investors moved into gold, the franc, U.S. Treasury bonds and the yen amid threats of an attack on the U.S. territory of Guam by North Korea after President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States" and that any aggression from Pyongyang would be met by "fire and fury like the world has never seen".

Officials in North Korea said they were "carefully examining" a strike on Guam, which is home to around 163,000 people and two U.S. military installations and threatened a further "all-out war wiping out all the strongholds of enemies, including the U.S. mainland" in a government statement.

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