Nikkei 225 · September 19, 2007

Tokyo answers the half-point cut

+3.67%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

Subprime reaches Tokyo

early in it · 2007-07-09 → 2008-03-17, -35.45% over the whole period

What happened that day?

19 September 2007 — the Nikkei 225 rose 3.67% to close at 16,381.54
The Fed had cut its policy rate by half a point overnight — twice the step the market expected
The meaning mattered more than the size. It signalled that the Fed saw the housing problem as something that could spread through the whole financial system
Tokyo always answers an American decision the next morning, because the decision lands after the US close
Japan had one more reason. When American rates fall, money borrowed in yen and parked in dollar assets unwinds less urgently
In hindsight the relief did not last. The same problem broke open far wider the following year
From early July to 16 January 2008 the index fell 26.05% over this episode

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.