Tag - SPWR

Small-cap stocks are expected to open higher, bolstered by a rally in the U.S. dollar and a slide in crude oil prices in after-hours trading. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was expected to open 0.3% higher, which would translate to an open near 756.60.

Once again, the big story overnight was a surge in the U.S. dollar, which climbed to fresh move highs against both the euro and the yen, rising some 0.6% against both currency markets. The rally in the greenback clearly pulled down commodity markets overseas, with crude oil slipping more than $2 dollars a barrel back below $113, near three-month lows.

The NY Manufacturing Survey came in at 2.77, which was well above the forecast for a slide of 4.4. This marked the first positive reading for the report since April and is a nice upside surprise for the manufacturing sector ahead of several more data releases coming up over the next few weeks. Stocks extended overnight gains as did the dollar on the news.

Still ahead this morning is the industrial production report at 9:15 a.m. ET and the Michigan sentiment survey at 10:00 a.m. ET. Also, Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans will talk about the economic outlook at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Stocks in the news overnight included Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LEH), which rallied about 3% on news that billionaire investor George Soros increased his stake in the beleaguered brokerage firm to some 9.5 million shares. NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE:NRG) also attracted a famous investor, with Warren Buffett adding . . .

Today concludes SmallCapInvestor.com’s Roundtable. In this final installment, our experts examine the alternative energy sector, compare the tech bubble burst with the current implosion of financials and take the temperature of the current state of the credit market. Taking a look at the international investing landscape, our experts still perceive the emerging nations, particularly China, to be the hottest destination for investment. And lastly our experts on average forecast the small-cap index Russell 2000 will end the year higher than it is today. (This is part five of a five part series.)

What do you think about alternative energy? Do you think that energy prices need to remain inflated for the alternative energy space to remain profitable? 

Oberweis: “No, the key for alternative energy is the subsidies, quite frankly. The real danger to buying solar stocks right now is there’s some momentum in the Spanish and German markets, which are the two of the large consumers and drivers of the adoption of solar energy, to reduce or remove the subsidies that are making the technologies economical and affordable. That’s probably a much bigger and more important driver of the success of solar companies than the actual price of oil.”

O’Halloran: “Alternative energy is an industry where we have very strong forces helping the companies. We have three holdings in solar energy: SunPower Corp. (Nasdaq:SPWR), Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq:ENER) and JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq:JASO). This year we have more wind energy companies in the portfolio because wind energy is just starting to ramp up aggressively like solar did over the past couple of years. 

“American Superconductor (Nasdaq:AMSC) and Woodward Governor Company (Nasdaq:WGOV) — whose equipment is used to adjust turbine-generated power for conveyance to electrical grids — are a couple. There are also companies such as RBC Bearings Inc. (Nasdaq:ROLL) and Kaydon Corp. (NYSE:KDN), which make bearings for the wind turbines. Another is ITC Holdings Corp. (NYSE:ITC), which is in the process of rebuilding electrical transmission lines as part of a federal government initiative. These upgrade lines will help take energy from [wind farms], put it on to the electrical grid and get it into homes. Fuel cells and their technology and ethanol are either too early or not profitable enough for us to be involved with . . .