Top 10 News Items 3/14-3/18: Fears of Drastic Nuclear Crisis in Japan Dominate Markets This Week; G7 Steps In to Depreciate Yen Against Dollar; Turmoil in Libya, Bahrain Continues

Here is a recap of the top news items from this week:

1. Fears related to a potential serious nuclear crisis at Japan's Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant led to sharp declines in equities on both Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. While Japan's Nikkei tumbled more than 13% from Monday's close to the lows of Tuesday, the Dow Jones in the US fell more than 280 points on Tuesday, and nearly 300 on Wednesday. Panic seems to have marked a peak when an EU energy regulator used such words as "catastrophic" and "apocalypse" on Wednesday. Tokyo Electric Power faced serious issues with the plant's #4 core, however, reports that the unit's cooling hold was finally filled with water quelled fears. By Friday, TEPCO had a new power line connected at the troubled plant.

2. Following the numerous on-going tragedies in Japan, the yen traded to its strongest-ever levels against the dollar this week, around 76 yen per 1 dollar. Equities rallied on Friday as the Group of Seven countries stepped in with their first forex intervention in more than 10 years. Japanese officials asked the ministry to begin selling yen in order to depreciate the currency versus the dollar. Just prior to the close of markets on Friday, yen traded at 80.87 against the dollar.

3. Unrest in Libya and Bahrain continued tthis week -- just one of the numerous overhangs for this market. Libya's Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa announced an immediate ceasefire following the EU's imposition of a no fly zone. Crude oil fell amid the headlines; the commodity closed this week's session around $101.40 per barrel.

4. Following the release of the Fed's Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, a litany of big banks announce major capital plans. Some highlights: JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) boosted its dividend to 25c per share and authorized a $15 billion buyback, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) said it will redeem preferred shares issued to Warren Buffett, Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) boosted its dividend to 12c, announced a 7c special dividend and authorized a 200 million share buyback, BB&T (NYSE: BBT), first out of the gate following the Fed announcement, raised its quarterly dividend to 16c and will also do a 1c special dividend and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) announced a new dividend of 12.5c per share and a 50 million share buyback. Click here to see our full rundown of the dividend raises.

5. Shares of Lubrizol (NYSE: LZ) surged nearly 28% on Monday's trading session following news that Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) will acquire the company in a $9.7 billion deal.

6. Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) declared its first ever quarter dividend on Friday, sending shares rising by as much as 2%, however the stock closed up just 0.6%. The 6 cent per share dividend yields 1.41%.

7. Nike (NYSE: NKE) shares tumbled more than 9% on Friday as the company issued disappointing quarterly results on Thursday night. The company reported Q3 EPS of $1.08, $0.03 worse than the analyst estimate of $1.11 while sales came in at $5.08 billion versus the consensus estimate of $5.17 billion. NIke said Future orders, ex FX, rose 9%.

8. Shares of FedEx (NYSE: FDX) rose 3% on Thursday following strong Q3 results. The company posted quarterly EPS of $0.81, $0.01 worse than the analyst estimate of $0.82. Revenue for the quarter came in at $9.66 billion versus the consensus estimate of $9.61 billion. FedEx expects to report Q4 EPS of $1.66-$1.83 and FY11 EPS of $4.83-$5.00.

9. Various markets in the US were dominated by the events taking place in Japan in the aftermath of last week's devastating earthquake and tsunamis. To name a few: crude fell, nuclear and uranium stocks plummeted, solar stocks rallied and insurance companies were under pressure. Here is a full review of the numerous stocks and markets which were affected by the tragic events unfolding in Japan this week.

10. The FOMC statement, an event which normally is one of the top news items for the week, was almost a non-event during this week's hectic market action. The Fed maintained plans for its monetary action and suggested that the US recovery is now on "firmer footing." Surprisingly, the Fed made no mention of the crises in Japan.

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