What started last Thursday with a harrowing afternoon plunge in Japanese equities has now morphed into a four-day rout, with the Nikkei diving 1.3% to start the week.
You’ll recall that something snapped in the previously invincible Nikkei late last week when selling ahead of Friday’s futures and options settlements led to the largest intraday swing of 2017 for the benchmark. Thanks to a little late dip buying and gains earlier in the session, the Nikkei only closed lower by 0.2% on Thursday, but it fell again on Friday and apparently, no one was in the mood to go “bargain” hunting today with the index still sitting near quarter century highs.
Today was the worst day for the Nikkei in seven months:
Things got really ugly late in the session. “Investors who were hoping for the market to stage a rebound during the day may have sold in disappointment towards the end” Shinkin Asset Management’s Naoki Fujiwara told Bloomberg:
You really didn’t want to be in Next Funds Nikkei 225 Leveraged Index ETF, because you know, “leverage” + “bad day” is usually, well, bad. It fell more than 2.6%:
But look, it’s important to keep a positive attitude. It’s like Kuroda says, “what we need is a positive attitude and conviction.”
Either that, or a penchant for euphemisms. “I don’t want to use the word ‘correction’” California State Teachers’ Retirement System’s Chris Ailman, told Bloomberg TV, adding that he’d much prefer to “call it a pause to refresh.” Got it.
Now where the f**** is Kuroda anyway? Because this isn’t supposed to happen…
