The dollar and the Swiss franc strengthened after North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire, boosting demand for safer assets. The greenback rose against all of its 16 major counterparts except the franc as South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that North Korea fired “several” artillery shells into the South near the two nations’ western border. The euro declined for a second day against the dollar on speculation an election in Ireland will hinder the nation’s aid talks with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. “Certainly tensions are there and real” between the two Koreas, said Adrian Foster, head of financial-market research for Asia at Rabobank Groep NV in Hong Kong. “It’s overhanging the market at the moment, and is yen-negative and negative for the Asian region as a whole. It’s dollar-positive.” The dollar appreciated to $1.3554 per euro as of 6:56 a.m. in London from $1.3627 in New York yesterday. The U.S. currency rose to 83.71 yen from 83.33 yen. The franc strengthened to 1.3406 per euro from 1.3484. To contact the reporter on this story: Ron Harui in Singapore at rharui@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rocky Swift at rswift5@bloomberg.net.

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