Mega earthquake in Japan!

[amk]

the story I heard is something like this: they (Japan power company) initially wanted to save the plant such that it can be repaired and later still operational; that's why they did not pump water earlier; now they concluded no way the plant can be saved, so they started to pump water and such with the only purpose to prevent meltdown.

[devilplate]

scary....god bless japan

[phantom_opera]

Some Japan blue chips screwed badly today, if you have any unit trust or fund exposed to Japan, you may find the value shrink by more than 10% overnight

I think stocks of Toshiba, Toyota, Sony all badly hit today.

[phantom_opera]

TOKYO - Millions of Japanese people were without food, water or power Monday and hundreds of thousands more homeless after a massive quake and tsunami left the economic superpower battling third-world conditions.

Aid workers and search teams from across the world joined 100,000 Japanese soldiers in a massive relief push as the rattled country suffered a wave of major aftershocks and fresh tsunami scare, while temperatures plummeted.

Store shelves and petrol stations emptied across the country as panic buying took hold, while 2.6 million houses were without electricity and 3.2 million people were running out of gas supplies according to the United Nations.

Hard-hit Ishinomaki, a town of about 165,000, is without power or communications and aid supplies have faltered due to transport damage. Half of the city is estimated to have been engulfed by the tsunami.

"First of all, we have no drinking water," mayor Hiroshi Kameyama told public broadcaster NHK. "We also have neither food nor information."

Asia-Pacific Red Cross spokesman Patrick Fuller, working in Ishinomaki, said it was a "desperate race against the clock to save those who may be trapped and wounded beneath colossal mounds of debris".

"At the Red Cross hospital, no space is left unused. Exhausted Red Cross medics sleep side by side with the wounded," Fuller said in a Red Cross blog.

"And still droves of injured people in need of medical help arrive. The wounded arrive on foot, by helicopter or carried by their fellow citizens."

At least 1.4 million people in Japan are temporarily without running water and more than 500,000 people are taking shelter in evacuation centres, said the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"The main humanitarian needs are food, drinking water, blankets, fuel and medical items which the government and private sector in Japan are urgently mobilizing and sending to the affected area," OCHA said.

Rolling blackouts began across the nation in a bid to save power, with the heavily nuclear-dependent nation rocked by explosions and meltdown fears at its Fukushima power plant as well as an oil refinery fire.

The UN said power and gas supplies were critical, with the Japanese winter bringing sub-zero temperatures overnight and snow and rain forecast for coming days.

"Rescue and relief operations are being hampered by continuous aftershocks, tsunami alerts, and fires," OCHA said.

"Many areas along the northeast coast remain isolated and unreachable by emergency services."

Soldiers were distributing heaters, emergency rations, blankets and water, and the military said some 10,000 people had been rescued.

There had been landslides in dozens of regions and roads, bridges and railways had been washed away, while major highways to the ravaged northeast were closed to all but emergency traffic, according to the Japanese Red Cross.

Boats, planes and helicopters were being used to ferry supplies and effect rescues but teams were facing significant logistical problems.

Medecins Sans Frontieres said water, food and blankets were the number one priorities on the ground and medical needs were growing across the country's 2,000 evacuation centres.

"Clearly the level of devastation is huge, but the response by the Japanese authorities is also massive," MSF Japan director Eric Ouannes told AFP.

[azeoprop]

scary first person tsunami video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uJN3Z1ryck

[sh]

180 billion injected in financial system.... tsunami of liquidity....

[land118]

BOJ damn solid...., against most experts expect the yen would weaken today, but they send strong support signal:

"The BoJ's cash injection pushed the yen back from a four-month high versus the greenback.

The Japanese unit was at 80.60 to the dollar, its highest since November, before easing back after the liquidity push"

[azeoprop]

Actually if u remembered those chinese new year 2011 rabbit year predictions saying more natural disasters and political instability....they are actually coming true....



I read this during cny period
http://www.paulng.com/CMS/uploads/2011-geo.pdf
http://www.tianlufengshui.com/2010-f...iger-2010.html

[azeoprop]

Actually if u remembered those chinese new year 2011 rabbit year predictions saying more natural disasters and political instability....they are actually coming true....



I read this during cny period
http://www.paulng.com/CMS/uploads/2011-geo.pdf
http://www.tianlufengshui.com/2010-f...iger-2010.html

Another one...
http://intfsa.org.au/joomdocs/2011Me...redictions.pdf

[phantom_opera]

Jialat, Nikkei futures -380 at 9223, nuclear meltdown already?!

[azeoprop]

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/nuclear-fue...40414-468.html

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/index.html

[Komo]

so confirm no sushi for the next 50 years....

[sh]

glow in the dark sushi

[phantom_opera]

TOKYO - FEARING the possible risk of contamination as Japan confronts a post-quake nuclear emergency, foreigners have begun a slow exodus from Tokyo, though some are maintaining a stiff upper lip.

Several European nations have advised their citizens to consider leaving the Japanese capital following two blasts at a quake-damaged atomic power plant 250km to the north, sparking fears of a possible meltdown.

France went further, telling citizens to leave the Tokyo area 'for a few days' if they had no specific reason to stay and warning that if a reactor were to explode, radioactive steam could reach the city in a 'matter of hours' .

'A third of our staff has left,' Stefan Huber, the Austrian deputy head of the European Union delegation in Japan, told AFP.

He added that executives at several German companies such as Bosch, Daimler and BMW, as well as law offices, had evacuated their spouses and children, noting that in Tokyo's German community 'it's a veritable exodus'.

Marissa, a dual Australian-Italian national who has lived in Tokyo for the past six years with her husband and two young children, decided Sunday that she was not taking any more chances and the family flew to Hong Kong.

'We just thought it was probably better to leave at this point in time... I don't know about this nuclear issue, they don't seem to have quite got it under control yet,' she told AFP, asking to be identified only by her first name. -- AFP

[azeoprop]

2 of my friends in tokyo have reached sg. One yesterday and one today...

[phantom_opera]

With futures down another 300 points, it may attract some long term funds to buy. However, it could be a total financial disaster if Tokyo is exposed to radioactive cloud. I think the market has at least priced in a 20% probability that this may happen, that's why the panic selling of futures.

Some of the worst hit stocks today

Tokio Marine Holdings down 12% at Y2,200 and
Dai-ichi Life Insurance off 19% at Y118,700

Toyota Motor closed down 7.9% at Y3,310,
Honda Motor fell 6.5% to Y3,095 and
Nissan Motor slid 9.5% to Y722

Sony fell 9.1%
Toshiba dropped 16% to Y411 and
Hitachi slid 16% to Y414.

And TEPCO (Tokyo Electric, the operator of the nuclear plant) limit down 24%

[hopeful]

is this the time to follow Buffett?
buy when others fear to tread?

[phantom_opera]

I think futures at 9,250 sees some support. If you dare to buy futures now, either your pants down when it opened -500 tomorrow or you huat when opens close to unchanged.

[land118]

Another one...
http://intfsa.org.au/joomdocs/2011Me...redictions.pdf

wow, now only mar, already so many predictions come true...

[azeoprop]

Nikkei 225 plunged another 5% opening this morning..... now at 9132!

[phantom_opera]

Below 9000 .... if anybody dared to long futures last night, you will be caught pants down

50% probability of meltdown factored in ....



Jizō (地藏菩萨), seen as the saviour of souls who have to suffer in the underworld, his statues are common in cemeteries. He is also believed to be the protective deity of travelers, and roadside statues of Jizō are a common sight in Japan. Firefighters are also believed to be under the protection of Jizō.

A fresh explosion rocked a stricken Japanese nuclear power station and workers were ordered to leave, a sign the situation may be getting more serious.

[devilplate]

let us noe when u tink its 99% factored in....lots of stocks looks delicious....

[phantom_opera]

let us noe when u tink its 99% factored in....lots of stocks looks delicious....

Can consider at 8,000 on Friday. I don't think another property cooling measure is required by then in Singapore.

Really respect Japanese government, other countries would have suspended the stock market.

[devilplate]

Can consider at 8,000 on Friday. I don't think another property cooling measure is required by then in Singapore.

y no more measures r required?

this japan crisis will dampen the ppty market as well?

[hopeful]

I think futures at 9,250 sees some support. If you dare to buy futures now, either your pants down when it opened -500 tomorrow or you huat when opens close to unchanged.

u are amazing .
Think you make more money from futures rather than from properties

[hopeful]

y no more measures r required?

this japan crisis will dampen the ppty market as well?

start of Asian wide recession?

[phantom_opera]

y no more measures r required?

this japan crisis will dampen the ppty market as well?

-700 nikkei futures now ...

Hoh hoh hoh, if Nikkei hit 8000, which is the previous low when Citi was $1USD, Japanese government probably need to shift capital from Tokyo to Kyoto already, what do you think when 3rd largest economy in the world will be in -5% recession for next 2 years ? Worst still, people may lose confidence in Japanese bonds and stocks and continue to exit in masse.

A blackwan event is in the making

[phantom_opera]

-860 nikkei futures, briefly touched -900

combined loss so far for 3 days = 1.7+6.2+8.6 = 16.5% .... if this is not blackswan, what is

Korea/Taiwan stock market selldown may follow soon

[azeoprop]

Then some crazy nuts will take over as PM of Japan and start invading Korea and China.... WW3

[phantom_opera]

Then some crazy nuts will take over as PM of Japan and start invading Korea and China.... WW3

That is unlikely given Japan military is weak.

-935 !!! Down more than 9%

All the profit since Lehman crisis evaporated in 3 days !!!