Crisis/Opportunity

[Wheatking]

why cattle? what am I missing.

I have been trying to figure out what japan will
be needing to rebuild. I imagine they will be
needing a different source of power generation,
what they rebuild with I'm not sure, ng, coal..
Was there that much infrastructure destroyed
that raw materials will going up. I imagine
uranium stocks will be taking a tumble
tomorrow.

[bucket]

Any kind of a generator is aligned to thousandths of an inch. The japanese power model would have been in turmoil had it been coal, natural gas or hydro. The generators would have needed to be shutdown for a re-alignment or they would have shut down anyway.

Unfortunately, the nuclear reactor near a major fault is not the wisest combination. But for power generation, does japan have any other option?

The logistics for coal and natural gas maybe doesn't make sense.

[cottonpicken]

As far as i know the fed itself is the largest
purchaser of treasuries with china japan uk
somewhere up there.

The recent news of china saying it has 30percent
more than reported makes me not care anymore
about official numbers.

Checking now your a metal bull all of a sudden?
lol i bet

Bto,your right anyone can make stuff up,but some
are more believable than others

[parsley]

Give it a week, and uranium stocks will be in the toilet and a baragin buy. (:~).

Motherboards. Wet motherboards need to be replaced. Device demand will come second, right after food. IMHO

[hobbyfrmr]

Parsly, good insight. Japan is highly technical and use their electronic devices more ways than anybody in the world. Um, I do not really know what is the main ingredient in computer motherboards. There is gold, lead? silver? silicon? LCD flat screens, Liquid Crystal Display? I kind of tuned out of the electronics. I just click the mouse and get stuff.

[charliep]

Here is an article on Japan port capacity and impacts earth quake.

[URL="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-14/corn-climbs-as-japan-quake-unlikely-to-dent-demand-wheat-gains.html"]Japan[/URL]

will be short term impacts as Japan deals with damage at ports, impact of potential electricity blackouts, etc.

[cottonpicken]

Never much liked the uranium,just seems like it
will only ever be a small piece of the
puzzle,especially for the forseable future,add on
all the problems and ive never really considered
it.

Cattle are to much of a quasi value add industry
in my mind and i dont touch value added
industries with a ten foot pole.

Both are reasonable investments with upside,just
not for me and maybe im wrong and both will be
the investment of the decade.

Not today though,uranium stocks are taking a 25
percent haircut.

[charliep]

More stuff on impact Japanese port capacity/impact on unloading. Ports in the north more oriented to container shipping. Grain ports (perhaps other than impact electricity and other disruptions) less impacted - limited impact on the ability to import wheat/canola).

[URL="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/14/japan-quake-ports-idUSL3E7EE0AL20110314"]Impact Japan grain terminals[/URL]

[Hopperbin]

TSX uptrend appears broken at the moment. Perhaps resulting in a Canadian dollar to USA dollar drop. Cotton what do you think of BHP? They have been taking gains on the year on the increased price of coal. Tuff call, the Japanese wear face masks. Will they Hold on to Nuclear or switch? Its about the future not the today. Big question. Like I said in another post, I have the feeling we have not seen nothing yet. When explotions start happenning in a Nuclear plant not sure if they can work fast enough to stop the chain reactions about to happen.

[furrowtickler]

Switch to what? I think they are screwed power wise - very little options.