UPDATE 1: They are panicking... BOJ injected 2 trillion yen ($19.4 billion) into the financial system to stem volatility following a circuit breaker in JGB futures trading.
UPDATE 2: Nikkei 225 is now down 1500 points from its highs and down 1150 (over 7%) from yesterday's close
All the time it is just the quadrillion JPY second-largest bond market in the world that is experiencing volatility on an unprecedented scale, the BoJ and her partners in crime are more than willing to 'officially' say "please do not worry." [8] But when the equity market - that barometer of everything good and holy about Abenomics starts to crater, you can bet the excuses will come fast and furious. Today's drop of over 1500 points (over 9%) from the earlier highs is the largest drop for the Nikkei 225 since March 2011. The Nikkei 225 just lost the all-powerful 15,000 level and is suffering another VaR shock with a 6-sigma move today. In fact given the price levels this drop is on par with the post-Lehman moves in 2008. The question now (with US equity futures also fading fast -20 points and JPY crosses getting hammered) is how will the Japanese risk appetite for peripheral European crap hold up with this crimping in their plan as Japanese bonds and stocks dump?
The Nikkei 225 is down 7% (1000 points) from its earlier highs...
[9]
High-to-low this is the biggest drop in 26 months...
[10]
Close-to-close this is the biggest drop in the Nikkei in over 26 months!!
[11]
The Final closing data is a disaster with JPY surging back to 101.50 (carry trades getting baumgartner'd everywhere), stocks down over 7%, and 10Y JGBs swinging from +11bps at the open to -6bps at the close for the second biggest range day in a decade...
Charts: Bloomberg