Nintendo shares hit 7-month low on recession fears
Seems the money-market-fueled stock dip Nintendo suffered last week isn't over yet. Bloomberg is reporting that the company's stock tumbled down 5.9 percent today to its lowest point since early July '07.
The reason for the precipitous fall isn't so much Nintendo's recent performance -- the company is still more profitable than a solid-gold hippopotamus that periodically spits out smaller golden hippopatami. According to Bloomberg, the stock sell-off for Nintendo and other export-based Japanese companies seems to be based on the recently reported rapid contraction of the U.S. service industry, which has also caused problems for the U.S. stock market. Traders are reading the contraction as a strong sign of a long-predicted U.S. recession, which means less money to go around for non-essentials like video games.
Will less discretionary spending mean tougher times ahead for the games industry, or is huge growth last year indicative of a somewhat recession-proof sector? We'll see, but in the meantime we'd recommend stuffing your mattress with small bills and loading up on canned goods. You know, just in case.
