Japan's stock market in full-blown panic...down 4.5% and still sinking

[Wednesdays]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=NKY:IND

NIKKEI 225
(Osaka: ^N225)
Index Value: 11,660.51
Trade Time: 8:19PM ET
Change: Down 554.25 (4.54%)
Prev Close: 12,214.76
Open: 12,028.45

Edit: this report is from just 19 minutes after the market opened!

At the moment, Australia's exchange is "only" down 2.5%.

[Aqaba]

1. How do you say "Drill Here, Drill Now" in Japanese?

[marmar]

2. Good grief.....It just opened!

Hold on to your knickers, people!

:scared:

[Wednesdays]

4. There are so many sell orders, communications are jammed

I was surprised at the time lag myself. This could get really, really ugly tonight.

[GoesTo11]

5. When the US sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold

Japan looks bad, but partly it's just because it was closed yesterday. The rest of the world has already taken in the news of the Lehman failure.

[DCBob]

6. More like when the US has the flu, the rest of the world dies.

This is serious.

[marmar]

7. For now, but our quickly diminishing status will put the kibosh on that....

.... soon it will be, when the US sneezes, the rest of the world covers its face and keeps strutting.

[truthisfreedom]

26. When the US sneezes, everyone ducks!

[thewiseguy]

3. What is Nikkei's biggest one day drop?

[DCBob]

9. At this rate, whatever the record drop was it will be shattered tonight.

This is getting ugly.

[maseman]

8. Remember one thing

The Nikkei was closed yesterday. It is feeling the pressure which it would have felt Monday and also the pressure of the Dow and other indicies being so far off Monday. Sort of a double whammy. It will be ugly for awhile.

[Wednesdays]

16. True, that. However...

if there were some good news on the horizon, the sell-off would be blunted, and perhaps the market could mount some sort of a rebound. Not so today--the bleeding continues...the Nikkei is now off more than 5%.

[tjwash]

10. Index Japan's debt by their GDP, and they have the second largest amount in the world.

176.2 % of Japan's GDP is debt...which makes them #2 (Lebanon at #1 is 209% of their GDP is debt).

They are screwed for many more reasons than the weak US dollar.

[thewiseguy]

11. South Korea's index is down more than 6%

[lurky]

12. Korea and Japan were closed Monday.

They're just catching up with current events.

[madrchsod]

13. at one time the japanese banks were "paying" people to borrow

it took japan years to come out of it financial problems

[Ilsa]

14. 4.5% is the loss in the DOW today. I wonder if they'll go lower. nt

[BuyingThyme]

15. When they start reporting in percentages, you know it's bad.

[Wednesdays]

17. Nikkei now lowest in 3 years

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idCAT1519420080916?rpc=44

[ladjf]

18. How much longer is the World going to allow our malfeasance

to wreck their economies?

[Renew Deal]

19. They were closed Monday, so today will be especially bad.

[ColbertWatcher]

20. Oh damn. When does Europe's markets open? n/t

[anigbrowl]

23. Already, and they're off about 3-4%.

DJStoxx 600 270.68............-9.73.........-3.47
FTSE 100 5,204.20........-212.50.........-3.92
DAX 30 6,064.16........-170.73.........-2.74
CAC 40 4,168.97........-163.69.........-3.78
S&P/MIB 27,333.00.....-1,039.00.........-3.66

Sorry about the formatting. The # on the right is the %

[ColbertWatcher]

21. I just peeked at Yahoo ... Nikkei down 659.12. Oh, fuck. n/t

[KillCapitalism]

22. Why was the Nikkei closed yesterday?

What obscure holiday were they observing?

[Hannah Bell]

24. Respect-for-the-Aged Day

敬老の日

(Keirō no hi)

[patriotvoice]

25. Down 600, nearly 5%. EOM