Japanese stocks have gone haywire on Thursday afternoon, reversing sharply in the past few minutes after scaling fresh multi-decade highs earlier in the session.

Just look at the one-minute chart of the TOPIX!

Oof.

It had been up as much as 1.5% earlier in the session but it’s now down 1% — quite the turnaround.

There is no obvious reason to explain the move, aside from the fact the index has surged by 17% since mid-September.

The Japanese yen strengthened at the same time the index fell, perhaps prompting profit-taking in those companies that had previously benefited from yen weakness.

The sudden reversal in Japanese markets has also led to selling in other indices across the region.

Here’s the regional scoreboard:

Australia ASX 200 6049.40 , 0.55%
NZ NZX 50 8021.09 , -0.24%
Japan TOPIX 1799.37 , -1.00%
Shanghai Comp 3413.69 , -0.05%
Shenzhen Comp 2013.35 , -0.02%
HK Hang Seng 29034.74 , 0.44%
Sth Korea KOSPI 2541.13 , -0.44%
Sinagpore STI 3420.22 , -0.03%
Taiwan TAIEX 10728.73 , -0.83%
Philippines PSI 8534.48 , 0.31%
Indonesia JKSE 6042.69 , -0.11%
Malaysia KLCI Index 1747.36 , 0.18%
Thailand SET 1708.02 , -0.39%
India Nifty 50 10333.35 , 0.29%
S&P 500 Futures 2586 , -0.19%

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