Stock Prices Plummet in Tokyo

Stock prices ended the morning sharply lower on the Tokyo Stock Exchange today after futures-related selling overwhelmed some bargain hunting and other buying, brokers said.

“It’s just miserable,” said one foreign trader during the morning. “It’s one-way traffic now.”

The key 225-share Nikkei index dropped 718.01, or 2%, to 35,108.83 at midday. Bargain hunters had braked the slide at mid-morning, but further waves of selling erased slight gains. A one-yen jump in the dollar overnight set bond prices back and sparked interest rate jitters, traders added.

The Nikkei index had dropped 1,161.19 on Wednesday in its third-biggest single-day decline ever, but rebounded 92.51 on Thursday in a volatile session that saw the index swing more than 800 points.