"Brett reported earlier about the RUMOUR of Chase cutting off credit to unnamed (unknown) Japanese institutions. That jibes with a big RUMOUR making the rounds today that a distressed Japanese financial institution sought to unload a huge basket ($2B is the figure) of U.S. equities via a counterparty in Europe. Salomon Bros. has been mentioned as the CP.
Again, this is all scuttlebutt. But if word of a trade of that size got out pre-opening, it could account for the action in the futures this a.m., traders said. Also, given Salomon's partnership with Nikko Securities in Japan, it's logical they might have been the CP.
Again this is RUMOUR and again I'm curious what (if anything) others have heard about this."