Nikkei 225 · August 24, 1971

The Nixon shock

-20.71%

peak-to-trough, the whole slide

7 trading days · 1971-08-13 → 1971-08-24

back to the old high on 1972-01-05

What happened that day?

From the 13 August 1971 peak to the 24 August low the Nikkei 225 fell 20.71% — seven trading days
On 15 August the US president announced that dollars would no longer be exchangeable for gold
Until then world exchange rates were fixed against the dollar, with the yen pinned at 360 to one
Once that peg went, the yen was obviously going to get much more expensive — and a dearer yen makes Japanese exports cost more and sell less
For an economy that lived on exports that meant everything was in question — a fifth of the index gone in barely a week
In December the major countries met and set new rates, and the uncertainty cleared. The old high returned on 5 January 1972

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.