SMI down 3.6 percent
Asian market down 5.4
Europien market index down 3.01 percent
the list gos on....

Is now the time to buy ?
Are we really all so dependent on the current crisis in Japan ?

Or is this just an over reaction and everyone is just panicing and selling off?

Lets hear what the pros have to say on eg, thats if they are not to busy selling off !

Any good tipps on what stock to look at ?

I dunno, maybe because the worlds 3rd largest economy has come to a stand still and is having rolling blackouts at the moment, maybe?

According to BBC News it is not unexpected or extreme considering the circumstances. That sounds logical to me, with no specific knowledge of such things.

Sovereign debt problems... Middle east / North Africa unrest... Japanese natural disaster which could lead to a nuclear crisis... hence the flight from equities... again it's very easy to look at things retrospectively... investors are just scared... wouldn't you??

buy gold or silver and short the Japanese market (is that possible?)

if you're asking you probably shouldn't...

Well it isn't possible from my account...either way, wouldn't want to take advantage of the bad situation there, bad karma.......

though, I will be staying away for now...who knows really?

Financial markets are doing what financial markets do. Acting as a herd and running for safety when faced with a threat. Stocks down; Gold down; Treasuries up; CHF up. Risk is off and liquidity is the name of the game. Is there a risk of overreaction? Of course. Whether it's a buying opportunity right now is irrelevant though unless you're brave and feeling lucky - you don't stand in front of a panicked herd when it's stampeding towards you unless you're prepared to get trampled. Even if the reaction is overblown, it doesn't mean the markets can't go lower. This is as much about sentiment as anything since nobody, and I mean nobody, can their hands around the extent of what is going on in Japan.

I would say that Japan is just an excuse to sell an overbought market, whether it be commodities or stocks or currencies.
The best advice is to look at the fundamentals at this time, and then pick your moment to get long, knowing that it will be very volatile, and use those stop losses for goodness sake.

I'd put it a different way. Financial markets don't understand how this will play out any better than the rest of the population. So they're selling off to hedge to themselves against the worst case scenario. That's how traders think. The time to start picking is when the smoke clears because until then, things could go lower as the world speculates.

Well I think thats a bit light tbh. Once you see the size of debt that the jap govt will have to borrow, and you see the cost to LLoyds and other insurance for rebuilding, then you realise it is a) going to seriously weaken the jap economy b) have a knock on effect throughout the world in financial institutions and c) possibly raise the cost of some resources to rebuild: I would say that is what they are thinking and as the markets are overbought, its" take yr profit" time, before it evaporates, and that is why you have to revert to fundamentals rather than use some techs on a few charts to give you the courage to trade it. But I might be wrong.

Here's my take

a) globally, markets were overbought before this started. Japan provided a good reason to pull back

b) investors were skittish about Japan's debt (the world's largest, some 2x GDP) already, and are now worried that further huge amounts will have to be borrowed to finance rebuilding. cannot be good ...

c) Japan is no longer a manufacturing powerhouse, but it is a critical link in the global supply chain ... especially when it comes to microelectronics. Scores of companies will have to re-jig their supply lines >> disruptions and higher costs >> lower profits

I dare say you both have a point. However a 20% drop in the Nikkei and the kind of shifts we've seen in global markets in the last 24 hours are not "pulling back" or "taking profits." At least not as defined in financial markets. To coin a phrase, "I think thats a bit light tbh"

I think the whole thing is over rated, if you look at the history of most stocks thy never have a constant line going upwards, there is always something like once a month that makes them dropp sharply and thats when i usually get it, buy something wait a month or so till it recovers and once i made a 10 percent profit sell again. Lets see what happends, im very posetiv about UBS"s come back this year, and bought at 16.40 it might go further down short term but it wont be long till it gos right back atleast till 17.80. And for long term I can see UBS going to atleast the half of its all time high...

Agreed, despite this "recovery," most countries economies are still on edge.

This problem (unfortunately) isn't unique to Japan. The U.S. and most of Europe finds themselves in over their heads. Rebuilding of Japan might prove to transform it completely. Hard to say for sure, but certainly not good in the short term.

Japans position in the global supply chain will have a major effect on the global "recovery" going forward. The question is, who (and how) steps in to fill that role? Companies that rely on "Just in Time" inventory are in for a rude awakening.

Surely buying Japanese shares is showing confidence in those companies and strengthening them in a difficult time. Is that taking advantage?

I had a far too large share of our portfoilio on Japanese values... as I didn't trust the Euro and only lost on my US investments (It is amazing to see how the S&P went up so nicely but still loses me money as the dollar went more down than the index up...)

I keep my current Japanese stocks and wait what happens (because I was too late to sell before the big hit on Monday.). If the reactors do not blow up big time, I will buy more in a couple of days.

I would say it is mostly panic. Japan is a massive economy, but clearly not as important for the EU as vice versa. We will survive without Toyotas...

I have a track record of buying the wrong one and if you do not really want to read loads of info and have a huge amount of money to invest: I'd go with a passively managed product based on the index. So you hedge your risk that one company goes down and bet on a large part of the national economy instead. You will find various ETFs serving your needs.

The Japanese market is oversold I think it is also unethical to short....
Personally I would follow the situation and buy when it's dropping like a stone as yesterday or when the reactors are cooled down eventually (but in that case you will buy at higher prices).
I would sell the yen since in the long term the currency will have to be weaker...now it can stay strong and get stronger for repatriation effects (or speculators anticipating the repatriation...)
Gold: Hold it
Silver: buy it lower
Oil: buy

Why so optimist about UBS? I think banks are trading stocks but I would not hold them for the long term...