WhyItDropped

Nikkei 225 · January 22, 2008

Subprime Shock — Nikkei

-5.65%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

Subprime reaches Tokyo

near the end of it · 2007-07-09 → 2008-03-17, -35.45% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • 22 January 2008 — Nikkei 225 fell 5.65%. Lehman's bankruptcy was still eight months away
  • The problem was already visible
  • US house prices were falling, losses on subprime-linked securities accumulating, and each week revealed which institutions were exposed and by how much
  • Japan reacted especially sharply because of the yen
  • Rising anxiety strengthens the yen, and a stronger yen shrinks exporters' profits. Through the currency, Japan takes direct damage from other countries' crises
  • Fell 32.48% from peak — and would deepen considerably 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 written from the sources listed above.