Considering the severity of the earthquake/tsunami damage done to Japan on Friday, the downward movement of US stocks on Monday was remarkable, with the Dow shedding only about half a percent. Economists do not expect the fallout from the disaster to significantly affect world markets. On Tuesday, the markets were down heavily in the morning but recovered to finish only about a percent down, as investors gambled that the huge sell-off of the Nikkei Stock Exchange was overblown. On Wednesday, the downturn accelerated as fears of a nuclear disaster in Japan increased. The NASDAQ fell into negative territory for the year. On Thursday, stocks bounced back over a percent, as new claims for unemployment dropped once again. The major indexes rose again on Friday on news of a cease-fire in Libya, with no additional bad news out of Japan.

With all the uncertainty brought on by events in Japan, the downturn this week could have been worse.

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