Nikkei 225 · September 16, 1986
A hard brake in the year the bubble grew
-5.88%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
The endaka slump
midway through · 1986-08-20 → 1986-10-22, -16.46% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- The Nikkei fell 5.88% on the day
- **No single cause for that day has been pinned down.** What is established is that it sat inside 1986, a year of climbing
- Five sessions earlier the New York market had recorded what was then its largest point drop, on worries about inflation and rising rates
- But Tokyo rose a session after that news before falling here, so New York alone does not explain this day
- Japan in 1986 was a year in which the yen, pushed up sharply after the previous year's Plaza accord, was squeezing exporters. The policy response released money that flowed into shares and property
- So the market that year was carried by surplus money rather than earnings. Markets like that have days that swing hard for no visible reason
- The Nikkei gained a great deal over 1986, and this fall ended as a correction of a few days inside it
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.