Earthquake

Every investment has its risks, and California municipal bonds certainly has its fair shares and some more. First and foremost, municipal bonds are fixed-income investments, and they are typically highly sensitive to interests rates. While we do not believe that normal interests rate fluctuation...

Moody's Investors Service announced Tuesday it put Japan's bonds on review for possible downgrade, dealing another blow to an economy already devastated by turmoil since the March earthquake and tsunami. Citing long-term fiscal concerns, Moody's is re-evaluating its view on Japan's Aa2 local and...

After the devastation of the Japanese earthquake and the closer of its Fukushima Dai-Ichi and Dai-Ni nuclear power stations, Tokyo Electric Power (OTCBB: TKECF) purchased a record amount of liquefied natural gas in March. TEPCO purchased 2.14 million metric tons of LNG in March, an increase of 9.9...

Sony (NYSE: SNE) said on Friday that two of its Japanese plants were shut down after Thursday's earthquake cut the power. Numerous manufacturers, including Sony and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), have had to adjust supply chain models to accomodate the devastating earthquakes in Japan. According to a...

There are growing concerns both inside Japan and internationally regarding how the country's food and water supply have been affected by the ongoing troubles at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was severely damaged by the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan earlier in the month and...

One of the casualties of the Japan earthquake and tsunami was Yen, Japan's currency. Rather than tanking because of the extra liquidity Bank of Japan provided for the market, Yen surged against all other currencies instead. In this case, traders followed the same playbook for the 1995 Kobe quake...

That's what the New York Daily News wants to know. According to John Armbruster, a seismologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, New York has been hit by a quake before, and is likely to be hit again. Armbruster says New York is susceptible to one quake a century of...

The large scale devastation and the loss of human lives caused by the tsunami are saddening, and we can only hope that the population unaccounted for after the event are merely those who lost communications, but are still alive. Our condolence goes to those who lost their loved ones and saw their...

The price of crude oil fell to near the $99 per barrel level on Tuesday in Asia, as lower demand from Japan and worries that the Japanese economy could be plunged into a deep recession offset concerns over the unrest that has spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East. The demand for crude...

In early trading this morning companies that are based in Japan are down. Car manufactures Honda (NYSE: HMC) and Toyota (NYSE: TM) have been down as much as 2% this morning. Electronics maker Sony (NYSE: SNE) is trading 3% lower this morning. Japanese retail banking business group Mitsubishi is...