First of all, my thoughts are with the Japanese people in these difficult moments. I am sure being such a hard-working, disciplined and respectful country they will have no (unmanageable) problems getting over it very soon.
Earthquakes as big as the one that hit Japan last night are always followed by numerous replicas of different strength. These replicas can last for several days until the tectonic plates 'settle down' again. Well, we have begun to see what can be the biggest and more widespread replicas of said earthquake: the economic one. Few hours have passed since the disaster and we can already see the effects on the markets: oil prices, gold and stocks go steeply down and the german bond and the US dollar go up. Pure textbook reaction.
