Stocks React To Japan Quake

Stocks is the U.S. are reacting to the powerful earthquake in Japan that has led to scenes of chaos in the effective areas. The 8.8 quake was the strongest in Japan in more than a century and triggered a number of aftershocks and a deadly tsunami.

The insurance group has been the most impacted from the disaster, as claims could reach in the tens of billions. Some insurers that trade in the US that could feel the pain from claims include: Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK/A) (NYSE: BRK/B), American International Group (NYSE: AIG) and Chubb Group (NYSE: CB), XL Group plc (NYSE: XL) and Everest Re Group Ltd. (NYSE: RE), Prudential (NYSE: PRU), among others.

Medial insurer AFLAC (NYSE: AFL), which gets 75 percent of its revenue from Japan, fell 2 percent today although the company said they don't see a material impact from the disaster.

Japan-based companies like Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE), Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM), Honda Motor (NYSE: HMC) have closed plants and have seen their stocks trade down between 2-3 percent today.

The main US-traded ETF for Japan, iShares MSCI Japan Index (NYSE: EWJ), is down 1.4 percent.

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