Whipsaw Wednesday – Smoke on the Water

550,000 people have already had to find another place as Japan evacuates a wide zone around the plant (and how would you feel if you were living one block away from that zone?  If they are forced to widen the evacuation area, about 2M people could quickly be displaced and over 100,000 Japanese soldiers are in the disaster zone, attempting to help out with the relief effort but also standing ready to mobilize a major evacuation if necessary.  People in Tokyo did not have to wait and many have already headed south or out of the country completely to avoid possible radiation fallout.  Many foreign corporations are recalling workers, businesses are at half-staff and panic buying of food and water is causing shortages in one of the World’s most civilized cities.  Think about that…

Also think about why the Nikkei went UP 5.6% last night – retracing 1/3 of the losses since the earthquake.  Are we getting hysterical interpretations of events over here or is it perhaps simply that those people who stayed in Tokyo to trade are, by definition – the optimists!  I was interviewed by BNN yesterday and they were "shocked" that we were buying yesterday – especially that we were buying HIT ($47 entry), GE ($19.20 entry) and SHAW ($31.50 entry on Monday).  

Too early they said.  I see it differently.  It seems to me that if this goes badly and the sentiment runs to decommissioning existing plants – that’s going to be a lot of work for these guys.  If there is a push for alternate energy – that’s good for GE and HIT.  If there is a push to put newer, safer plants on-line to replace older…