From the Wall Street Journal:
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.MarketBeat had another GE post this morning:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dived 285 points, or 2.4%, to 11703, while the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index shed 35 points, or 2.7%, to 1261. The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 77 points, or 2.9%, to 2623.
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. Tokyo also suffered an aftershock in the late evening, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
In Japan, the Nikkei Stock Average plunged 11%, sparking broad declines in Asian and European markets. Germany's DAX 30 index was particularly hard hit, dropping 4.8% in intraday trading.
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....MORE
Despite the soothing words of Wall Street analysts analysts, investors are still selling the heck out of General Electric. Tuesday morning the stock is down 4.7% in premarket trading. GE seems to be getting whipsmacked by its ties to the nuclear situation in Japan. As The Journal reports, GE supplied reactor No. 1 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant about 240 kilometers, or nearly 150 miles, from Tokyo. This seems to be the interesting tidbit in the story on GE this morning:following up on yesterday's "Japan Earthquake: GE and the Nuclear Plant, Part II".
Japan’s nuclear liability law holds the utilities that operate nuclear plants responsible for all damages. The law, however, contains an exception for cases where “the damage is caused by a grave natural disaster of an exceptional character.”General Electric isn’t alone, S&P 500 futures are down 2.5% and it seems like it’s going to be a pretty rocky open. Buckle up.
