Nikkei Suffers Grievous Loss In Dramatic Rout While Plunge Protection Team Rides To Rescue In China

It was an ugly open for Japanese shares on Tuesday following the Christmas Eve massacre on Wall Street, and suffice to say things did not improve over the course of the session. We documented the initial bloodbath on Monday evening, noting that the early losses put the Nikkei (which fell through 20,000 for the first time since September 2017) on track to join the Topix in a bear market. By the time it was all said and done, the Nikkei fell by more than 5%, its worst day since the U.S. election.