If the deal falters, the student lender would become the biggest casualty of the recent market turmoil. Last month, Home Depot was pressed to renegotiate the sale price of its professional supply unit down by 17 percent, or $1.8 billion, amid the credit crisis and the housing market problems.

With the equity markets off sharply for the week and the credit markets seizing, investors are being forced to relearn some of the basics forgotten during the private-equity, easy-credit, corporate-buyout boom of recent years.

<p>The Japanese stock market has a tendency to follow after the US stock market. Recent events illustrates this.</p>