Nikkei 225 · February 12, 2016
When negative rates backfired
-25.28%
peak-to-trough, the whole slide
48 trading days · 2015-12-01 → 2016-02-12
back to the old high on 2017-06-02
What happened that day?
- From the high on 1 December 2015 to the low on 12 February 2016, the Nikkei fell 25.28% over 48 trading days
- In late January the Bank of Japan introduced negative interest rates — banks would pay a fee to park money at the central bank
- The intent was to push money out and weaken the yen. The result was the opposite
- The yen weakened briefly and then strengthened sharply, as the move was read as a sign the central bank had run out of tools
- Bank shares also fell hard, since negative rates squeeze their earnings
- At the same time oil fell below thirty dollars a barrel and world markets shook with it
- This high was not recovered until June 2017
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.