Infinite Unknown

What a difference 20 years makes.

The Japanese stock market on Tuesday morning completed its investment year with its usual half-day, Dec. 30 session. That won it the dubious honor of being the first major global stock market to put its 2008 performance in the books — and its double-digit loss is likely to be followed by most of the rest of the world.

The Nikkei Stock Average’s glory days above 38000 are a distant memory, as the Japanese stock market has completed its dismal 2008 investment year. Pictured, a trader in Tokyo earlier this month. Associated Press

The Nikkei closed up 1.3% to finish at 8859.56, booking its worst year ever with a loss of 42%. This follows an 11.1% decline for 2007. On a positive note, the index marked its first positive month since May.

More striking is the Nikkei’s comedown from its heights two decades ago. In 1989, on the last trading day of that year, Tokyo’s blue-chip index had touched an all-time high of 38915.86.

On Monday, the final full trading session of the year, the Nikkei had closed at 8747.17, down 7.65 points or 0.09%.

Insurance stocks in Tokyo on Monday surged in the wake of reports that Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, Aioi Insurance and Nissay Dowa General Insurance were in talks to integrate their operations by next autumn.

In a statement posted on its Web site, Mitsui Sumitomo wrote that “no decision that needs to be disclosed has been made.” Mitsui Sumitomo rose 8.3%, Aioi soared 19% and Nissay Dowa jumped 15%.

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Tags: Economy, Japan, Nikkei, Stock Market

A trader at the Philippines stock exchange as business is halted. Photograph: Cheryl Ravelo/Reuters

Stockmarkets around the world crashed again today as the prospect of a deep worldwide recession continued to haunt investors.

Fears that the financial crisis is spreading to emerging nations sparked another day of panicky selling, despite speculation of another round of interest rate cuts to try to stimulate the global economy,

As the current crisis sparked by the failure of Lehman Brothers entered a seventh week, Japan’s Nikkei index fell 6.4% to its lowest level since 1982, extending its recent slump. It has now lost 20% of its value in the last week.

Hong Kong also saw shares routed, with the Hang Seng index plunging almost 12% in late trading - putting it on track for its biggest daily fall since 1997. And the Chinese stockmarket tumbled over 6%, bringing more pain to small investors who have watched the Shanghai Composite index fall 70% from last year’s peak.

With India’s stockmarket losing 8%, shares across Europe are also expected to fall sharply when trading begins. The Dow Jones index is tipped to fall by another 400 points, or 5%, later today.
(The Dow fell only 2,42% today.)

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Tags: China, Dow Jones, Economy, Financial Crisis, India, Japan, Nikkei, Philippines, Stock Market, U.S., Wall Street

Pedestrians walk past an electronic stock board in Tokyo, Oct. 16, 2008. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg News

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) — Japanese stocks plunged the most in two decades as a drop in U.S. retail sales pointed to a deepening recession and Prime Minister Taro Aso reinforced concern a bank bailout will fail to stem a rout in global markets.

Honda Motor Co., which gets more than half its profit from North America, sank 10 percent, while Nintendo Co. tumbled by its daily limit in Osaka after retail receipts in the U.S. fell for a third month. JFE Holdings Inc., Japan’s second-biggest steelmaker, declined 15 percent after UBS AG cut its price estimate by 64 percent. Oil explorer Inpex Corp. lost 14 percent, the most on record, after crude slid to the lowest in a year.

“The American spending spree we’ve seen in the past few years has totally evaporated,” said Yoshinori Nagano, a Tokyo- based senior strategist at Daiwa Asset Management Co., which manages $96 billion. “The earnings outlook for auto manufacturers and electronics makers is particularly harsh.”

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 1,089.02, or 11 percent, to close at 8,458.45 in Tokyo, the second-steepest plunge in its 59-year history. The broader Topix index fell 90.99, or 9.5 percent, to 864.52. Both gauges sank the most since October 1987. The Osaka Securities Exchange temporarily halted trading in Nikkei futures after a plunge in shares triggered circuit breakers.

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Tags: Bailout, Banks, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Nikkei, Recession, Stock Market

As feared, foreign bond holders have begun to exercise a collective vote of no confidence in the devaluation policies of the US government. The Federal Reserve faces a potential veto of its rescue measures.

Asian, Mid East and European investors stood aside at last week’s auction of 10-year US Treasury notes. “It was a disaster,” said Ray Attrill from 4castweb. “We may be close to the point where the uglier consequences of benign neglect towards the currency are revealed.”

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Tags: banking system, Bear Stearns, Bonds, China, collapse, Disaster, Fannie Mae, Fed, Federal Reserve, Foreign, Freddie Mac, index, Inflation, investors, Nikkei, Petrodollar funds, rescue, US Treasury, veto, Wall Street Journal

LONDON (AFP) - European equities dived on Monday after heavy falls earlier in Asia as markets were gripped by growing concern that the US economy was slipping into recession, dealers said.

Stock markets in Europe and the United States had sunk late last week following signs that the fallout from the US credit crisis was far from over.

In late morning European trade on Monday, Frankfurt, London and Paris stock markets chalked up fresh losses of about 1.5 percent.

Asian stocks plunged earlier Monday with Tokyo ending down almost 4.5 percent, Hong Kong tumbled 3.07 percent and Seoul gave up 2.3 percent. Singapore and Sydney both shed about 3.0 percent.

“Not a great start to the week with the UK following falls in the US Friday and Asia today,” said Mike Lenhoff, strategist at brokerage Brewin Dolphin.

“What matters most to investors is what is happening in the US. Investors view the US as in recession or going into recession which is not good news for corporate earnings and the market.”

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Tags: Dow Jones, fear, Hong Kong, HSBC, Nasdaq, Nikkei, Recession, Singapore, Stock Market, Sydney, world