WhyItDropped

Nikkei 225 · March 30, 2009

The carmakers might not be saved

-4.53%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

A year off the crisis low

early in it · 2009-03-10 → 2010-04-05, +60.73% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • On 30 March 2009 the Nikkei 225 fell 4.53%
  • The day before, the US government had demanded hard restructuring from two large carmakers, with bankruptcy as the alternative
  • The market had risen through March on the premise that the government would rescue anything. That premise shook
  • Japanese carmakers and parts suppliers fell with them, tied as they were to the US market and its supply chain
  • Both companies did go through bankruptcy that year and were rebuilt with government support
  • In this stretch the index was 23.64% below its peak

Sources

Every figure on this page is recomputed from the original daily closing prices and checked against them at build time. The account of what happened is written from the sources listed above.