Chile Earthquake

A powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific Ocean off the coast of central Chile early Saturday and US authorities warned it could generate a tsunami.The epicenter of the tremor, which hit at 3:34 am local time (0634 GMT), was 100 kilometers (60 miles) north northwest of the Chilean town of Chillan, the US Geological Survey said.It was 105 kilometers (65 miles) west southwest of Chile's city of Talca and 115 kilometers (70 miles) north northeast of Concepcion, it said.

President Michelle Bachelet said Wednesday that Chile's economy was severely affected by the powerful 8.8 earthquake and ensuing tsunamis that killed nearly 800 people."The reconstruction task will be enormous," said Bachelet, speaking to the country at the Chilean presidential palace.An important port, Huachipato, "was unusable" after it was hit by a tidal wave generated by the Saturday quake.Agriculture, trade, mining, industry, building and tourism "were all sectors that were hard-hit" by the earthquake that rocked the central-southern Chilean coast.

The huge 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Chile this weekend could have short-term affects on stocks' potential winners and losers.CopperWith Chile being the world’s number one producer of copper, the industrial metal surged over 5% on Monday, as supply disruptions sent the price higher. The iPath Dow Jones Copper ETN (JJC) tracks the price of copper and the PowerShares Base Metals ETF (DBB) is composed of one-third copper along with aluminum and zinc.

Three strong aftershocks shook central Chile early Friday, sending panicked residents rushing out of their homes and leveling more buildings in an area already hard hit by last week's monster earthquake.A first magnitude 6.2 quake jolted people awake at 6:20 am (0920 GMT), just six days after a historic 8.8-quake and ensuing tsunami waves killed over 800 people and left some two million homeless, Chile's emergency management agency Onemi said.

Thomas Smicklas submits:The devastation of wide areas within Chile may give investors pause. The Bolsa de Commercio de Santiago will likely expect some selling pressure as the country sorts out the damage from the powerful earthquake Saturday. As the market has been one of the best performers in thew world over the past year, this expected pullback may give investors an opportunity to selectively enter and wait for this resilient country to come back.

The powerful earthquake that shook Chile on Saturday probably shifted the Earth's axis and made days slightly shorter, a NASA scientist said.Richard Gross, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, calculated that the planet's axis would have shifted by eight centimeters (three inches) during the 8.8 magnitude quake, NASA said in a statement.Earth days are 24 hours long because that's the amount of time it takes the planet to make one full rotation on its axis, so shifting the axis would affect rotation.