Sept 8-11: Solar Outgains Dow, NASDAQ

But China's getting the PV manufacturing jobs

For the first time in seven weeks, the 20 Solar Stock Index outpaced both the DJIA and NASDAQ. Even though all three indexes finished down Friday, the 20SSI was up over 32 points to finish the week at 413.67, an 8.5% gain. The Dow finished up 164.14 this week, about 1.74% ahead and NASDAQ ended up 62 ahead, about 3% up.

Friday's sour close ended a five straight trading days of gains, so evidently short-term profit taking was the trend of the day. Still, the week was the best for all three indexes since the week ending July 24.

Seventeen stocks in the 20SSI went up. Energy Conversion Devices (ECD), which owns the UniSolar thin-film PV line, gained nearly 29% despite reporting dismal sales for the quarter ending June 30. ECD also makes nickel metal hydride batteries which power most hybrid cars today. First Solar gained 12.58% after having just signed a contract with the Chinese government to build a 2-gigawatt plant in Mongolia. First Solar's cadmium-telluride (CdTe) thin-film technology is leading the world in low-cost PV.

All-in-all it was a good week for Wall Street in a month that historically is a bad trading month. Too bad the good news for solar does include more green jobs in America. Evergreen Solar, based in Massachusetts, just began production from a new plant in China, as well. The policy of giving tax credits to oil and coal with no incentives for new solar plants under the Bush administration has allowed China, Japan, Germany and Spain to excel in this emerging industry. Solar photovoltaics is yet another industry pioneered by Americans that Americans buy from factories in other countries. Will this ever end?

20 Solar Stocks Index Week of September 8-11, 2009

	Monday Open	Friday Close	Up/Down	% Change	Close 1/5/09*	Close 3/6/09**
Dow Jones DJIA	9441.27	9605.41	+164.14	+1.735%	8952.89	6626.95
NASDAQ	2018.78	2080.90	+62.12	+3.077	1628.03	1293.85
Akeena Solar AKNS	1.09	1.18	+.09	+8.257	2.28	.61
Amtel Systems ASYS	5.01	5.01	NC	NC	4.00	2.73
Applied Materials AMAT	13.45	13.51	+.06	+.9955	10.67	8.70
Canadian Solar CSIQ	14.90	16.58	+1.68	+11.28	7.00	3.0601
ECD (UniSolar) ENER	10.41	13.40	+2.99	+28.72	29.33	17.45
Entech Solar ENSL.OB	.1805	.1750	-.0055	-3.142	.28	.23
Evergreen Solar ESLR	1.68	1.94	+.26	+15.47	3.60	1.03
First Solar FSLR	121.47	136.75	+15.28	+12.58	157.80	108.49
GT Solar Int. SOLR	5.19	5.35	+.16	+3.082	4.00	4.02
JA Solar JASO	3.42	3.90	+.48	+14.03	5.09	1.91
Kyocera KYO	87.18	88.05	+.87	+.9901	71.87	54.21
LDK Solar LDK	8.94	9.75	+.81	+9.060	14.84	4.40
MEMC Elect. WFR	16.59	17.21	+.62	+3.737	15.76	13.68
Renesola SOL	5.55	5.86	+.31	+5.585	5.15	2.1201
Satcon SATC	1.78	1.90	+.12	+6.741	1.60	1.23
SolarFun SOLF	5.16	5.94	+.78	+15.11	6.12	2.30
SunPower SPWRA	26.07	29.15	+3.08	+11.81	45.13	23.39
SunTech STP	14.85	15.97	+1.12	+7.542	13.55	5.34
Trina Solar TSL	26.43	29.07	+2.64	+9.988	10.09	7.23
Yingli YGE	11.83	12.98	+1.15	+9.721	7.25	3.888
20SSI Weekly Cumulative:	Previous 381.27	Current 413.67	Change +32.4/+8.5%	Avg Stock +8.165%	1/05/09* 415.41	3/06/09** 266.01

* The starting date of the 20 Solar Stock Index (20SSI).
** NOTE: Concensus "new" bull market began on Monday, March 9, 2009.