WhyItDropped

Nikkei 225 · September 11, 1998

LTCM Fallout — Nikkei

-5.11%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

When the banks themselves failed

near the end of it · 1996-06-26 → 1998-10-09, -43.18% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • 11 September 1998 — Nikkei 225 fell 5.11%, while Russia's default and LTCM were shaking global markets
  • Japan was doubly exposed
  • One exposure was its own banks' bad debt; the other was the unwinding of the yen carry trade
  • Every time global risk aversion intensified the yen strengthened, and every time it did, exporters' outlook worsened
  • Aftershocks from that year's Asian crisis were still present too
  • Japan was absorbing external shocks without having escaped the stagnation that began in 1990
  • Fell 23.02% from 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.