Japan

Nippon Steel from Japan have agreed to a 65% rise in the price the company will pay for iron ore in term contracts which begin effective on April 1: Which will be great for Rio Tinto and BHP. A price rise of 50% or more has been widely expected after record highs in 2007 and continuously strong Chinese demand. Traditionally, all steel mills accept whatever price is first settled by any steel mill and one of the three top miners, Brazil's Vale or Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

Macquarie has forecasted Japan to be the fastest growing G7 nation over the next two years. Macquarie has lifted its forecast for Japanese GDP growth from 3 per cent to 3.6 per cent financial year. This stronger grow is a "reflation" of domestic demand which accounts for structural growth that is largely independent of the state of the global economy.

This may be yesterdays news but its nice to keep a record of news reports that really influence huge shifts in market mood and opinion. What happened in Japan a few days ago is one example of how market sentiment can heavily sway market price. Keep this reference in mind when you trade!

Japanese broker is in hot water after a typo mistake - instead of ¥610,000 for ONE share, they sold 610,000 shares for ¥1: The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) on Friday suspended trading in J-Com Co., a day after its stock was sold in a mistake that could cost Mizuho Securities Co. 30 billion yen in damages.

The TSE said it wants to prevent a repeat of the market turmoil Thursday caused when a Mizuho Securities trader placed an erroneous sell order of J-Com shares.