Yen Rises, Stocks Pare Gains After Strike on Syria

• Yen Rises, Stocks Pare Gains After Strike on Syria

Stocks pared gains and the yen surged after the U.S. launched an attack on Syria. Gold jumped with Treasuries.

Shares from Tokyo to Sydney pared an advance and gold rose as investors bought haven assets. The U.S. launched a cruise missile attack against Syria two days after Bashar al-Assad’s regime used poison gas to kill scores of civilians, an act that drew international condemnation and that President Donald Trump called “‘an affront to humanity.”

The decision to strike in Syria marked a stark reversal for Trump, who during his presidential campaign faulted past U.S. leaders for getting embroiled in conflicts in the Middle East. Trump is meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping following a series of missile tests by North Korea’s regime.

Focus later today turns to the U.S. jobs report after a week in which strong private payrolls data and weak automaker sales gave conflicting signals on the strength of economic growth. The Federal Reserve’s indication this week that it intends to shrink its $4.5 trillion balance sheet later this year underscored a shift away from injecting record amounts of cash over the past decade.