Tokyo, 5 August 2024 (TDI): Japan’s stock market suffered its biggest ever one-day loss on Monday as a global sell-off intensified following weak US jobs data.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 closed 4,451 lower, which is the biggest drop by number of points in history. The index finished more than 12 percent down, pushing its losses to 24 percent since early July. The index has now entered bear market territory, which is defined as a 20 percent pullback from recent highs.
Amid steep declines, trading was halted for short spans of time in Japan and South Korea. Circuit breakers, which pause trading amid strong volatility in an effort to prevent panic selling, were triggered multiple times in Tokyo and Seoul.
On Friday, the Nikkei closed down 5.8 percent, marking its biggest daily drop since March 2020, as traders fretted about the impact of a stronger yen on Japanese companies after the Bank of Japan signalled further rate increases could be on the way. A strengthenng yen would hurt exporters and companies with overseas earnings.
In the United States, Amazon reported on Thursday an earnings miss for the second quarter and disappointing guidance for the third quarter. Intel (INTC), on the same day, witnessed an income loss of 1.6 billion dollars in the second quarter and announced plans to slash 15 percent of its workforce to reduce costs.
Other Asia-Pacific markets also tumbled on Monday.
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The Korea Exchange implemented circuit breakers to halt trading in the benchmark Kospi index briefly after it plunged more than 8 percent.
Taiwan’s Taiex ended down 8.4 percent, its worst day ever.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 3.6 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and China’s Shanghai Composite were down 2.6 percent and 1.2 percent respectively.
