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Nikkei stock index tops 42,000 for 1st time on tech gains

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… and let the average people eat rice cake…

-5 ( +7 / -12 )

Let’s remember the Nikkei, s&p500, wall street is not the person on the street. It’s just the company. All those new heights, soaring dividends, now how does that translate to Joe blogs, Jane doe, or Mr Honda’s shopping basket? Sweet F.A.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Japan has a contracting economy and a PM that is constantly attending summits abroad in preparation for the next world war!

Never mind the Nikkei is up LOL!

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

Nice pic.

Needs police arresting any plebes picking up cash and trucks representing the LDP, crony special interests and transnational capital whales hoovering up all the cash.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

The stock market is nothing but a gambling center which totally has nothing to do with the very poor real economy. It's nothing but a bubble which soon will crash as all bubbles do.

But in the meantime we are all making big gains with our stock holdings. Just a matter of timing to get out before the coming crash.

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

umbrella:

The stock market is nothing but a gambling center...

Making money in business and gambling differs.

Business is basically the exchange of values, normally products and money, in a marketplace, thereby benefiting both sides. In contrast, gambling involves moving money from one person to another; one side must lose money for the other to gain money.

The labor market is a place where companies and workers exchange wages and labor, benefiting both sides.

The stock market is a meeting place where people who have money but not technology and people who have technology but not money meet, benefiting both sides just like other marketplaces. The stock market is not gambling.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

umbrellaToday  10:04 pm JST

The stock market is nothing but a gambling center which totally has nothing to do with the very poor real economy. It's nothing but a bubble which soon will crash as all bubbles do.

But in the meantime we are all making big gains with our stock holdings. Just a matter of timing to get out before the coming crash.

Not entirely true. Many companies are making record profits, and valuations are not crazy.

Even if it is a bubble, they can last for a long time before bursting. In 1996, the president of the Fed talked about irrational exuberance in the stock market, meaning he considered it a bubble. The market then skyrocketed for the next four years. But you are right, it ended up in tears with the dot-com crash.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The tanking yen has everything to do with it. After Japan repatriated many tens of billions of its US holdings recently, using it to improve the lives of people here would be the last thing they would’ve thought of using it for. Instead, throwing caution to the wind, and with nary a thought for the moral hazard of being both the regulator as well as the beneficiary of lax enforcement of rules, they’ve probably added to their already ginormous stock holdings. Sniffing the wind, the smart money on Wall Street knows it’s only a matter of time before the yen-dollar rate heads in the opposite direction and that there might never be a better time to increase the J stock weighting in their portfolios.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Abe234:

*Let’s remember the Nikkei, s&p500, wall street is not the person on the street. It’s just the company. All those new heights, soaring dividends, now how does that translate to Joe blogs, Jane doe, or Mr Honda’s shopping basket? *

What's new about the Japanese economy today—and one of the reasons why the Nikkei is going up—is that Japanese people have finally awakened to the existence of such a market. Investment is no longer just about companies.

Here are some examples:

Investment amounts in Nippon Individual Savings Accounts (NISA) in Japan since 2019:

2019: 17 trillion yen

2021: 25 trillion yen

2023: 35 trillion yen

Furthermore, a new NISA was introduced in January 2024, with changes to the system including making it permanent, making the tax-free holding period indefinite, and increasing both the annual investment limit and the tax-free holding limit. For this reason, NISA accounts (individuals like Jane Doe and Mr. Honda) will significantly increase in 2024.

Another example is the GPIF. The biggest Japanese investor is the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the largest pool of retirement savings in the world. Since April 2020, the GPIF has invested in a mix of roughly 50% stocks and 50% bonds, subdivided into 25% domestic equities, 25% international equities, 25% domestic bonds, and 25% international bonds. In August 2023, the GPIF reported a record quarterly profit of ¥18.98 trillion ($133.2 billion). This means that all Japanese people, including Jane Doe and Mr. Honda, who receive pensions after retirement, will benefit from this investment.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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