Japan market summary for Wednesday (Sept. 12)
Nikkei 225 Stock Average: -80.07 (-0.5%) to 15,797.60
Nikkei 225 futures Osaka: -60 (-0.4%) to 15,780 , Singapore (SGX) -10 (-0.1%) to 15,815 , Chicago (CME) *9/11 — +115 (+0.7%) to 15,955
TOPIX: -4.12 (-0.3%) to 1,528.27 ; Advancers 639 x decliners 965 (unch. 120), New highs 8 x new lows 147
Jasdaq: -6.54 (-0.4%) to 1,841.52
Yen: weakened 0.3% against US$, last quote around 113.9 level
Notes: The Nikkei was initially trading to the upside, but from 2:00 p.m JST came under selling pressure when PM Shinzo Abe announced he will resign (see The Wall Street Journal’s coverage, which includes a timeline and a list of successor candidates by the Associated Press). So it’s sayonara PM Abe! Resigning is probably the best decision for Abe. What an unlucky politician/PM, having fallen victim to an all too common string of scandals from key members within his Cabinet. Poor selections, ultimately, for Abe, who also was too disconnected with the concerns of the citizenry. This doesn’t bode well at all for Japanese stocks in the near-term. Then again, there was no real reason to be bullish anyways, unless considering valuation, but the universe of undervalued Japanese stocks has been large for quite a while now.