WhyItDropped

Nikkei 225 · May 6, 1992

A bounce after the holidays

+3.32%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

When the bad loans surfaced

near the end of it · 1991-03-18 → 1992-08-18, -47.29% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • On 6 May 1992 the Nikkei 225 rose 3.32%, right after Japan's long spring holiday
  • Orders that pile up over a holiday arrive at once, which makes the move larger
  • The index was down nearly forty percent from its peak, so up days were large too
  • No single trigger can be pinned to this day
  • In this stretch the index was 39.28% below its peak
  • Three months later the government announced its largest stimulus package and the stretch turned

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.