ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
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
Integrated solar manufacturer ReneSola Ltd. (SOL) reported strong earnings results Friday morning. The summary from the company’s presentation says it all: SOL’s push downstream into the module production business has had a very positive impact on the business. Revenue and earnings growth accelerated in the third quarter. (Click for a larger view – I highly … Read more
Intel (INTC) and Microsoft (MSFT) have been tech laggards for some time now. However, over the past week, both stocks finally breached the all-important 200-day moving average (DMA) line of resistance (charts at the end of this piece). While MSFT is struggling to add to its small post-earnings gains, INTC has completely reversed the post-earnings … Read more
Evergreen Solar’s sudden resurgence in October remains a mystery to me. Nothing in the recent third quarter earnings report explains the sudden return of enthusiasm to the stock. On the other hand, there was just enough reassurance in the report to once again suspend fears of the worst outcomes. ESLR remains a speculative play on … Read more
Slowdown in Germany? Italy cutting solar subsidies 6-10%? The Czech Republic trimming subsidies? A deterioration in ASPs (average selling prices) in the second half of 2011? A huge follow-on offering of 3.5M ADS (American Depository Shares) in which insiders are cashing in on 43% of the shares? Jinko Solar (JKS) mentioned all these potential headwinds … Read more
While many gear up for the elections and the Federal Reserve, I am bracing myself for a barrage of earnings from solar companies. Thursday night, First Solar (FSLR) kicked off the earnings parade in disappointing fashion as the market reacted by taking the stock down 9%. It seems that the market agonized over two main … Read more
The stock market responded favorably to Thursday evening’s earnings report from Lender Processing Services, Inc (LPS) by sending the stock up 5%. Buying volume was also strong at 3.3 million shares, almost doubling the 1.7M 3-month average. *Chart created using TeleChart: I suspect a material portion of this buying came from disappointed shorts who were … Read more