Japan's Nikkei 225 Falls 6.72% as SoftBank Shares Slide 14%

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 6.72% and moved below 57,000 at 7:28 p.m. ET Thursday (00:28 UTC Friday), putting a steep decline in a major Asian equity market on the radar for U.S. crypto traders.

SoftBank shares fell 14%, while Tokyo Electron and Advantest each lost 13%. All three declines were steeper than the index’s 6.72% slide, with SoftBank down more than twice as much as the benchmark. The falls put pressure on both the broader Japanese market and individual shares.

With the Nikkei below 57,000, the benchmark’s decline captures the scale of the move across Japanese equities. The named stocks fell even more sharply, giving the selloff a company-level dimension as well as an index-level one. SoftBank recorded the largest loss among the three companies named.

For U.S. crypto traders, the decline serves as a cross-asset risk signal from a major Asian market. It puts Japanese equities into focus alongside digital assets for readers tracking risk markets.