Japanese stocks are getting destroyed

Stocks in Japan were getting absolutely destroyed in early trade on Friday. The Nikkei and Topix indexes, the major benchmarks in Japan, were down over 5% on Friday morning.

The early dump in Japanese stocks follows what was an ugly day in the US, where the major averages fell as much as 2% before a recovery into the close. It was still not a good day in global markets, and the week — a rocky one — looks to be ending on yet another difficult note.

Before markets opened on Friday, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso "stepped up his verbal intervention," Reuters reported. The Japanese yen, which rallied on Thursday, was little changed following Aso's commentary.

Here's the drop in the Nikkei:

Screen Shot 2016 02 11 at 9.22.10 PM

(investing.com)

And the Topix:

Screen Shot 2016 02 11 at 9.23.57 PM

(investing.com)

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