ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
During the last earnings conference call for Evergreen Solar (ESLR), management claimed that the company had the resources to meet its liquidity needs and had enough cash to sustain current and planned burn rates. A little over two months later, ESLR has announced that it is retrenching and shutting down its manufacturing facility in Devens, … Read more
LDK Solar has started off the new year for solar with a bang. The company significantly raised guidance for both the fourth quarter of FY10 and the entire FY2011 with particularly strong expectations for the module business. Here is a listing of the new sales guidance compared to the old guidance: Revenue 4Q10: $870-910M from … Read more
Research In Motion (RIMM) reported earnings December 16, 2010. The general reaction to the report has been muted with the stock trading down 1.7% since the market close before the report. I have followed RIMM’s stock repurchasing activity for a while now, but I neglected to note earlier that RIMM announced the (aggressive) completion of … Read more
Another earnings-related presentation, another yawn from the stock market – such is the life of First Solar (FSLR). On December 14, First Solar hosted a conference call to discuss its guidance for 2011. Overall, it was a relatively bullish call. However, the stock had rallied over 10% into the call and, presumably, expectations were high. … Read more
Lately, it seems I have been pointing out more and more stocks in breakout formations. It makes the skeptic in me a little wary and nervous, but I will keep rolling with what works. And steel stocks have finally started working over the past month. I have to assume that the market is seeking out … Read more
NOW I better understand Wunderlich Securities’s bullish case for GT Solar (SOLR). When I wrote December 1 about how diversification into sapphire crystallization systems (used in the manufacture of LED products) is paying dividends for SOLR, I noted my confusion over Wunderlich’s reiteration of a buy rating on SOLR. That reiteration came at the same … Read more
Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) reported earnings last week with excellent headline results and strong guidance, but the stock market rewarded the company with a 7% loss on extremely high selling volume. Wedbush even reiterated its outperform rating and $43 price target based on TSL’s performance (according to briefing.com). Most of those initial losses were erased … Read more
Rallies in solar stocks would be more exciting if they were not so fleeting. In early September, I noted a “stealth rally” was underway in solar stocks. In early October, I wrote breathlessly about a “soaring September” for solar stocks. Just three weeks later I had to warn that selling volume was picking up in … Read more
For a few months, I have intended to write an update on lithium ion battery company Ener1, Inc. (HEV) since I took exception with an analyst’s dismissal of the company in late July of this year. The stock remained firm since then, and I was thinking it was a bullish sign. HEV reported earnings last … Read more
The shorts in Cisco (CSCO) had it right after all…even if they were a bit early. Short interest in CSCO surged in late August close to 52-week highs. When I noticed this in mid-September, I made a somewhat complicated case for using this as a contrarian signal to go long the stock. CSCO trickled upward … Read more