The investment angles leading from the crisis in Japan vary from nuclear energy, infrastructure and even commodities, but what about major U.S. domestic stocks? How are U.S. equities and exchange traded funds (ETFs) being affected by this triple disaster?
A new angle on how the earthquake and devastation in Japan is affecting U.S. companies is interesting. Hidden Levers for Seeking Alpha reports that the supply chain disruptions resulting from halted businesses and factories shutting down in Japan are leaving gaps in the economic activity in other parts of the world, such as the U.S. [What’s Your ETF Strategy For Volatile Markets?]
Will major U.S. semiconductor companies face headwinds due to the reduced economic activity in Japan? Companies such as Hitachi, Fujitsu and Toshiba are domiciled in Japan and are most certainly going to suffer production outages. Can chip prices rebound and help these players? Even Texas Instruments (NYSE:TI) has plants impacted due to the earthquake/tsunami disaster, but the impact should be minimal for this one. [Crisis In Japan, Economic Data Move ETFs.]
In the wake of recent disasters, preliminary estimates put damage over $100-200 billion, with most of the damage in infrastructure, such as roads, ports, railroads and nuclear power plants. The investment opportunity is knocking and once the rebuilding effort gets underway, it will put more people to work and money back into the economy.
Industrial, financial and consumer discretionary sectors should all be positively affected by the re-build in infrastructure and uptick in workers. Japan is a country that has come back before, and the government is dedicated to rebuild what was lost.
Is now the time to get back into markets or invest in related sectors? Remember to keep your investment strategy active, especially during times of uncertainty like now. We follow a simple 200 day-moving-average strategy, and sell when an ETF falls below this mark.
Tisha Guerrero contributed to this article.
The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.