Turkish Lira Crashes 4%, Biggest Drop Since "Failed Coup" Following Visa Suspension Drama

With tensions between Turkey and the US escalating dramatically and unexpectedly in the past few days, when first Turkish police on Wednesday arrested a local employee of the US embassy in Istanbul and charged him with espionage and an attempt to overthrow the government, which was following on Sunday afternoon by the US embassy in Turkey announcing that "effective immediately" it has
"suspended all non-immigrant visa services at all U.S. diplomatic facilities in Turkey"...

Statement from the U.S. Mission to Turkey pic.twitter.com/RjTU3BfSXZ

— US Embassy Turkey (@USEmbassyTurkey) October 8, 2017

... only to see a identical Turkish tit to the US tat, when the Turkish embassy in Washington tweeted that it too suspended non-immigrant visa services for U.S. Citizens, echoing almost verbatim the US statement, to wit, "Recent events have forced Turkish Government to reassess the commitment of the Government of the United States to the security of Turkish Mission facilities and personnel. In order to minimize the number of visitors to our Embassy and Consulates while this assessment proceeds, effective immediately we have suspended all non-immigrant visa service at all Turkish diplomatic facilities in the U.S."

Statement from the Turkish Mission to the U.S., October 8, 2017 pic.twitter.com/4i0BwInOCj

— TurkishEmbassyDC (@TurkishEmbassy) October 8, 2017

... the market got nervous, and in early - and illiquid - FX trading, the TRY has tumbled to as low as 3.8533 per dollar, a level last seen in January, a drop of as much as 4%, the biggest slide since the fake attempted coup attempt in the summer of 2016.

This is the currency seventh consecutive decline, after dropping 0.8% Friday amid concern Fed tightening would hurt EM currencies, and should it persist may finally have an adverse impact on other EM currencies, not to mention various other local Turkish asset classes when markets reopen in a few hours.