Posted on 03/15/2011 7:27:28 AM PDT by BenLurkin
U.S. stocks plunged deep into the red, joining a global market selloff that started in Tokyo as Japan's nuclear crisis deepened and worries escalated over the human and economic toll of last week's earthquake.
The selloff came after news of two more explosions at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant that released large amounts of nuclear material into the atmosphere. Prime Minister Naoto Kan warned of "substantial" radiation leaks.
The Nikkei Stock Average plunged more than 14% at one point in afternoon trade before recovering slightly. It was still its worst drop since 2008. The fall came on top of Monday's 6.2% tumble, as investors grew increasingly concerned that Japanese industry could be shut for a while.
"It's beginning to spread double-dip recession fears across other asset classes," Roger Volz, director of equities at BGC Partners said.
"We're seeing the world's third-largest economy grind to a halt" and the resulting supply-chain disruptions will be a weight for global stocks markets until Japan shows signs it has contained the nuclear crisis, he added.
The Japanese selloff hurt sentiment across Asia, where Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed down 2.6% and South Korea's Kospi fell 2.4%.
Shares of General Electric dropped 5% to lead the Dow's components, amid concerns about the company's involvement in the design of all six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan.
Industrial and energy stocks were the heaviest sector weights on the S&P 500. Alcoa fell 3.4%, United Technologies decline 3.3% and Caterpillar shed 3.2%.
In the commodity markets, crude for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 3.8% to $97.33 a barrel. Gold dropped sharply, to $1390 an ounce.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
A GE meltdown would make me happy. I would not buy anything from that commiecrat outfit.
OH THE SWEET IRONY!!
At the same time they're actively working the other side of the street with their support for Kyoto, windmill, solar, and cow fart energy (no joke, you have seen the commercials haven't you?) it now comes to light they they've got their fingerprints all over this calamity.
Put it this way: I won't be saying any intercessory prayers on their behalf.
At least oil is down as well, last time I checked more than $3 bucks.
Couldn’t happen to nicer guys
(unfortunately, my wife owns some of this stock...)
Couldn’t happen to a better company. Bastards.
I am no fan of GE. I think, contrary to their popular commercial tagline, that they bring evil to life, not good things.
That being said, there is NOTHING WRONG with that boiling water reactor design. Those reactors went into automatic shutdown EXACTLY as they were designed to do. If the cooling loop pumps had been supplied with power from another place, NONE of the meltdown or hydrogen explosions would have occurred. The only reason they did is because the tsunami swamped the diesel generators that powered the shutdown cooling loop. There are other reactors on the mainland side of the island that stayed up. If they'd had power lines from those reactors, NOTHING bad would have happened.
But the madness of crowds intervenes. Because of stupid movies and freaking Greenpeacers, millions of people wrongly believe nuclear power is unsafe.
Jim Quinn made a great point on his radio show this morning.
With the situation in Japan firing up the Ban the Nukes crowd, Obama is at the same time coming under increasing pressure to bail out his buddy, Jeffrey Immelt.
Will be interesting to see how Bam tries to play that one.
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