TICKER TALK

If only you had a nickel for every time someone called the Japanese stock market a “bargain” over the last eight years. Tokyo share prices are on a fresh downward trajectory, with the Nikkei-225 index threatening to fall below 15,000 again, weighed down by East Asia’s worsening economic and social woes.

After bottoming at 14,664 on Jan. 12 amid Indonesia’s currency collapse, the Nikkei had rallied 18% to 17,264 by March 2. But as with all Japanese rallies in the 1990s, this one, too, proved fleeting.

The only securities that nervous Japanese investors seem to want to own are Japanese government bonds. Another rush of money into those bonds has pushed the yield on the 10-year government issue to record lows for six straight trading sessions. The yield was at 1.57% as of Tuesday--or 4.1 points below the 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield.

How frightened of stocks do you have to be to accept yields of 1.57% instead? Very frightened.

* Who says Wall Street turns its nose up at the little people? Shares of Commerce-based 99 Cents Only Stores rose $1.25 to $37.75 on Tuesday on the NYSE, after the bargain retail chain was added to the “recommended list” at Goldman, Sachs & Co., one of Wall Street’s toniest brokerages.