Hot-hot-hot! I’m not referring to the song (but click dancing sunny above to hear the Cure’s version), but to the performance of solar stocks for the week — and year-to-date (YTD) — ending Friday, September 21.
Solar stocks have been as hot as the weather recently — and it’s been pretty hot in the mid-Atlantic region, at least, for this time of year.
Check out the chart which shows the performance of solar stocks last week and for 2007 YTD. Sure, The Federal Reserve cut interest rates a half a percent last week, which resulted in a boost for most stocks. However, as points of reference, the performances of the major market indices (DOW, S&P 500, and NASDAQ) are included in the chart, as is the price of oil. A quick glance shows that most of the solar stocks had a much better week than the market in general. Same goes for 2007.
The chart is from a site called Financial Nirvana (controlling my musical pun temptation) — nice work!
BTW, the two top performers thus far in 2007, Ascent Solar Technologies (ASTI) and First Solar (FSLR), are both involved in “thin-film” solar. Thin-film has been the sweet-spot technology-wise in solar. Geography-wise, China has been the center of the better-performing solar universe, however these two companies have bucked that trend: both are US of A companies. Ascent is based in Littleton, Colorado, and First Solar in Phoenix, Arizona. Ascent is a development stage company, while First Solar is more established.
How about HOKU Scientific (HOKU) you may ask? (That’s the beauty of one-way communication…) HOKU is a supplier of polysilicon, a raw material used to produce the solar cells. As the name may indicate, it’s based in sunny Hawaii. Its financials are horrible at this point, which is not atypical for such a small company at this stage. Polysilicon has been in short supply, thus, the run-up in this company’s stock.
I’m pretty confident that solar stocks (well, some) will shine on. Just wish I could say the same about this Indian Summer…
Disclosure: I own ASTI stock.
