The Breakfast Briefing: Japan’s Nikkei Tumbles Into A Bear Market After Wall Street’s Latest Slide

Ted

FYI: Japanese stocks plunged Tuesday and other Asian markets declined following heavy Wall Street losses triggered by President Donald Trump’s attack on the U.S. central bank.

The Nikkei 225 NIK, -5.01% fell by an unusually wide margin of 5%, hitting its lowest point since May 2017 with a close at 19,155.74. The index is now down just over 21% from highs reached in early October, which meets a widely accepted definition of a bear market. Loses were widespread, with all 33 Tokyo Stock Exchange subsectors posting losses. Fuji Electric 6504, -7.55% dropped over 7%, SoftBank Group 9984, -7.58% was off 7.6%, Fast Retailing 9983, -4.13% fell over 4% and Toyota 7203, -5.25% sank over 5%.

China’s Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, -0.88% pared losses to close down 0.9%, with the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite 399106, -0.81% faring the same. Taiwan’s benchmark index Y9999, -1.17% declined more than 1%.

Markets in Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea were closed for Christmas.
Regards,
Ted
U.S.: (Closed

Europe: (Closed)

Asia: WSJ:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/japanese-stocks-track-u-s-drop-to-20-month-low-11545712962?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1

Asia: MarketWatch:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/japans-nikkei-plunges-after-wall-streets-latest-slide-2018-12-24/print

Asia: Bloomberg:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-25/nikkei-225-falls-below-20-000-as-japanese-stock-rout-accelerates

Asia: Reuters:
https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/corrected-nikkei-hits-20-mth-low-after-wall-st-slides-on-u-s-political-worries-idUSL3N1YU1C0

Asia: CNBC:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/25/asia-markets-japans-nikkei-hits-20-month-low.html

Current Futures:
https://finviz.com/futures.ashx

johnN

One MFO quoted previously "when US has a cold, rest of world catch pneumonia" ....so true

hank

Ted said: “FYI: Japanese stocks plunged Tuesday and other Asian markets declined following heavy Wall Street losses triggered by President Donald Trump’s attack on the U.S. central bank.”

“Attack on the central bank” seems a bit strong @Ted. Jerome Powell, whom Trump has considered firing, is not the Central Bank. He is just the Chairperson of the Federal Reserve Board which is charged with setting the overnight lending rate at the Central Bank.

Furthermore, there are many ancillary issues contributing to the worldwide slide in equities which extend far beyond Trump’s differences with Powell. Those include:

- A global trade war

- A partial U.S. government shutdown

- Multiple resignations and firings at some of the highest levels of government (ie: Department of Defense)

- A weakening of traditional alliances accompanied by an increasing U.S. tilt towards authoritarian regimes

- The approaching conclusion and final report of the Mueller investigation amid concerns it could lead to a Constitutional crisis

Mark

Please @hank, you know that's all fake news. It's the democrats and the fed's fault.

AndyJ

For December so far, Asia as a whole, tho registering losses too, seems to be beating the U.S. by a fairly decent margin. My Asia ref points are multi-country Matthews, so YMMV, but they're down 2-5% while the half-dozen U.S. funds on my watchlists are down 10% or a bit more.

India's actually up this month, but then at times it does run pretty much on its own.