Japanese stock market rout enters third day with Nikkei 225 in bear market

Japan’s stock market rout entered its third day as weak U.S. jobs data dealt a fresh blow to global investor confidence, already weakened by a rising yen, rising interest rates and tensions in the Middle East.

The Topix and Nikkei 225 indexes fell more than 7% in morning trading in Tokyo, bringing their decline to about 20% — a loss that signals a bear market. Both benchmarks are heading for three days of declines that would be the worst since the 2011 tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. A circuit breaker halted trading in Topix futures for about 10 minutes.