Japan's stock market down 5.25% and still going down

[Wednesdays]

If I see the chart correctly, it's the first time the Nikkei has been trading under 10,000 since 2003.

NIKKEI 225
(Osaka: ^N225)
Index Value: 9,922.97
Trade Time: 8:26PM ET
Change: Down 550.12 (5.25%)

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=^N225&t=5y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=

All other Asian indexes are down as well.

On edit: I should do this more often. Reporting bad financial like this seems to bring out the pixies. ;) Nikkei bounced back 1.5% in the last 10 minutes.

[Art_from_Ark]

1. Just went back up, now 10,160

as of 9:47 a.m. Japan Standard Time

[Wednesdays]

2. Then down again 30 points in 2 minutes. It's absolutely wild.

It wouldn't surprise me a bit if they hit both yearly highs and lows. Bizarre.

[girl gone mad]

3. Talking to a Japanese trader a couple of hours ago..

he sounded downright schizophrenic. He's dying to make a killer trade, but keeps coming up on the losing side. I told him to take a week off, let things play out.

[Kip Humphrey]

4. Jumping like the DOW today. .. Hhmm... Question: Is China or Saudi Arabia dumping stocks and

Paulson coming in behind buying, or is all this a broad-based sell off followed by bargain hunters buying? Seems like a war was/is being waged.

[Art_from_Ark]

5. There could be several reasons

The higher yen (currently 101.52 per dollar) is seen as hurting exporters, like Japanese automakers.

The higher cost of coal/fossil fuels is hurting other Japanese companies.

Intensive competition from other countries such as South Korea is hurting Japanese electronics/appliance companies.

There also appears to be some panic selling due to fears that this is not just a financial crisis but a situation that could lead to a worldwide economic slowdown.

(on edit)
Well, now there's something in the Japanese news about the data in September's Corporate Short-term Economic Survey which shows the index for leading corporations and manufacturers in minus territory for the first time in 5 1/4 years.