According to the second section, “market leaders hard hit,” why was it significant that stocks like united states steel, general electric, and western union were hit so hard by the drop?
those companies were among the country’s strongest stocks.
those companies were a bit unstable, always leading the way up or down.
those companies establish the stock market, so their stocks had special importance.

The Stocks of companies like General Electric, Western Union and United States Steel, were hit so hard by the drop because those companies were among the country’s strongest stocks. These companies were leaders of the stock market and everyone was interested in buying or investing only in these companies.

This was the reason that these companies or ‘Market leaders’ hard hit the stock exchange market.  The New York Exchange is also known as “The Big Board” is the largest stock exchange market of the world by market capitalization of its listed companies at US$30.1 trillion by February 2018.

pepin the short[a] (german: pippin der kurze, french: pépin le bref, c. 714 – 24 september 768) was the king of the franks from 751 until his death. he was the first of the carolingians to become king.[b][2]

the younger son of the frankish prince charles martel and his wife rotrude, pepin's upbringing was distinguished by the ecclesiastical education he had received from the monks of st. denis. succeeding his father as the mayor of the palace in 741, pepin reigned over francia jointly with his elder brother carloman. pepin ruled in neustria, burgundy, and provence, while his brother carloman established himself in austrasia, alemannia and thuringia. the brothers were active in suppressing revolts led by the bavarians, aquitanians, saxons, and the alemanni in the early years of their reign. in 743, they ended the frankish interregnum by choosing childeric iii, who was to be the last merovingian monarch, as figurehead king of the franks.

i'd assume india mainly because of how isolated japan was.   plus it is a whole china away.