BEIJING The worst of the anti-Japanese protests that have swept China in recent days may be over. The financial fallout for the world's second- and third-biggest economies may be just beginning.

Japanese-owned factories, restaurants, mini-marts and clothing retailers across China closed en masse Tuesday as protests continued in nearly 100 cities, sparked by a dispute over control of uninhabited islands near Taiwan.

Automakers Nissan, Honda, Toyota and Mazda suspended operations at some plants, as did Sony. Hundreds of 7-Eleven shops run by a Japanese company were shuttered, as were dozens of outlets of the popular Gap-like Japanese clothing chain Uniqlo. Eateries serving Japanese food even those with Chinese owners and staff closed as well, shaken by weekend demonstrations that saw protesters overturning Japanese cars, looting businesses and setting factories on fire.

Though domestic political pressure made it difficult for either side to compromise, neither appeared to be in the mood for an escalation either. China sent hundreds of police to the Japanese Embassy on Tuesday to monitor the crowd that gathered there, and many people received text messages from the police asking them to protest peacefully.

But with the world economy struggling, damage has already been done. One analyst predicted a "short, sharp downturn" in business dealings between two major global players.

The business closures and calls to boycott Japanese goods helped drive down the stock prices of many Japanese companies, including Nissan, which fell 5%; Honda, which dropped 2.5%; and Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing, which plummeted 7%. The shares of some Chinese companies with close ties to Japanese firms also fell.

"This is the worst we have seen," said Tetsuo Kotani, a research fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo. "This could be a turning point for Japanese companies, making them reconsider the risks in China and leading them to diversify toward Southeast Asia, South America and Africa."

Anti-Japanese sentiment has long existed in China, and authorities often have encouraged it. The recent demonstrations were the largest and most violent since 2005, when Chinese took to the streets over grievances that included a textbook they said downplayed accounts of Japanese brutality in China and elsewhere in Asia during World War II.

The latest protests appeared to peak Tuesday on a date tied to that same period: the 81st anniversary of an event that launched Japan's deadly occupation of large parts of China.

The dispute is over uninhabited islands known by Japan as the Senkaku and China as the Diaoyu. Japanese officials, pushed to action by Tokyo's nationalistic governor, Shintaro Ishihara, announced last week that the government would buy three of the islands from the Japanese family that has controlled them for decades. China argues that they were an integral part of its territory for centuries, and were illegally occupied by Japan.

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