US stocks trending lower as N. Korea tensions intensify

Major US equity indices opened with modest losses on Tuesday and were being weighed down by intensifying tensions between the US and North Korea.

The North Korean standoff with the US and its allies escalated over the weekend after Pyongyang said that it had successfully tested an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile. Subsequent news report also suggested that the isolated regime was ready to launch a new inter-continental ballistic missile as soon as this Saturday. 

The latest in Pyongyang’s series of missile and bomb tests has hardened the rhetoric from the US, with the President Donald Trump saying, in a recent tweet, to build strategic forces in Japan and South Korea. 

During the opening hour of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost over 85-points to 21,900, while the broader S&P 500 Index slipped nearly 8-points to 2,468. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was down around 23-points to 6,412.

Meanwhile, the market seemed to have largely ignored comments from the Fed Governor Lael Brainard that the central bank might have to slow down the pace of interest rate hikes in wake of the recent stubbornly low inflation readings. 

Later during the NY session, comments from Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan would now be looked upon for fresh clues over the Fed's policy tightening path.