U.S. launched more than 50 tomahawk missiles at Syrian Military base about 2 1//2 hours ago. Markets reacting by seeking safe haven assets.....Gold is spiking higher, equities dropping (S&P futures pointing toward a decent drop in U.S. markets at opening bell). Nikkei index fell near the 18,500 level, but currently bouncing to just above 18,600.....it will be interesting to see the flow of trades as Japan equities trading approaches the closing bell . JPY pairs are falling due to "risk aversion" on news of military action. Key level for JPY pairs is still USD/JPY @ 110.00-10.....there should be significant amount of SL orders just below that level. A sustained break should cause further drop in JPY pairs. I expect massive flows out of "risk" in European and U.S. markets as we head into the weekend due to uncertainty surrounding the U.S. airstrikes......the sentiment that not many traders will want to hold RISK-ON positions over the weekend will hold true in light of the U.S. attack. The question now is what role will the U.S. NFP data play in markets? My take on this is that it won't matter how GOOD the data is, the "risk-off" reaction in global markets should trump (no pun intended....LOL) NFP data beating forecast. If NFP falls short of forecast, then that should cause MORE money to flow OUT of risk assets. The fact that the ADP jobs data handily beat the forecast on Wednesday means that the markets are expecting NFP to beat the forecast number, so an NFP BEAT will probably NOT cause a huge positive reaction, anyway. I'm still holding my SHORT GBP/JPY and USD/JPY positions taken earlier in the week, based on FED minutes and Nikkei index breaking critical support of January 24 low at 18,787. I added SHORT AUD/JPY position after the news of U.S. military airstrike, due to my opinion that global markets will be in "risk aversion" mode as the week's trading draws to a close.

USD/JPY chart below shows a wedge formation playing out. In my opinion, the U.S. airstrikes will cause further profit taking in equities worldwide with heavy unwinding of "risk-on" positions, therefore causing the wedge to break downward.


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