Japanese stock markets have seen a severe meltdown, with investors panicking over fears of recession and other macroeconomic factors. This market sentiment has sent stocks of Japanese game companies tumbling.
Street Fighter 6
The Nikkei 225, an index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has dropped over 12% on August 5, Bloomberg reported.
The news agency cited a surge in the yen against the US dollar, rising interest rates, and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East as the main reasons behind the stock rout. This was the largest single-day drop for Japanese shares since 1987’s Black Monday collapse.
As spotted by industry analyst and Kantan Games CEO Serkan Toto, many Japanese game-related companies saw their shares slide. Below are the biggest drops at the close of today’s trading:
- Cave Interactive — down 26.87%;
- Capcom — down 17.3%;
- Nintendo — down 16.53%;
- Marvelous — down 16.1%;
- SEGA — down 13.62%;
- Nexon — down 13.45%;
- Konami — down 11.69%;
- Cyberagent — down 11.35%;
- Koei Tecmo — down 8.14%;
- Sony — down 7.6%;
- Square Enix — down 4.76%.
UPDATE (August 6): Serkan Toto noted that almost all companies regained their losses on Tuesday, including Nintendo (shares up 12%), Sega (+13%), Capcom (+18%), and Nexon (+12%).
24 hours later. What a “fun” ride….
Almost all companies regained their Monday losses.
Nintendo +12%
Sega +13%
Capcom +18%
Nexon +12%
Cave +19%
Konami +8%
Sony +8%
Marvelous +9%
Cyberagent +8%
Koei Tecmo +6%
Square Enix +3% (reports Q1 numbers in 1.5h) https://t.co/6HaOTznJJA— Dr. Serkan Toto 🔜 Gamescom (@serkantoto) August 6, 2024
Many other stock exchanges across the globe also tumbled, including Nasdaq (-6.34%) and the pan-European STOXX 600 index (-3%). Overall, European shares fell to near six-month lows, while South Korea’s Kospi fell 9% to its lowest since April.
Another reason for the global stock route is that the US economy added 114,000 jobs last month (fewer than expected), with the jobless rating rising to 4.3% (the highest since October 2021).
“Markets were on edge before Friday but a weak payrolls has really escalated a profound move across the globe,” Deutsche Bank global head of macro research Jim Reid told the Guardian, adding that “it’s like the market has added up two plus two and made nine.”
The recent news also caused fears of a US recession, with Goldman Sachs raising the chances from 15% to 25%. However, analysts noted that there were still no “major financial imbalances” and the overall chances were limited.