Nikkei 225 · February 2, 1973
The winter fixed exchange rates gave way
-4.85%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
The oil shock in Japan
early in it · 1973-01-24 → 1974-10-09, -37.40% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- The Nikkei fell 4.85% to close at 4,820.52. No single trigger for the day could be pinned down
- The previous session had been the high of this episode. A rising market turned here
- The issue of the moment was the exchange rate. The system of fixed rates between countries was widely said to be at its limit
- Japan lives on exports, so a dearer yen cuts company profits. A conversation about currencies is a conversation about share prices
- In mid-February the dollar was devalued again, and the yen was let go to float
- The episode fell 18.38% from the January high to the April low. Then the oil shock arrived that autumn
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 put together from the public record; where a specific source was consulted it is listed above.