After yesterday’s market went a little bonkers, I though it would chill out a bit today but it seems Wall Street is still hungover from last night’s (morning’s) party. Party’s over Dow, time to take off the pointy hat.
I mean at least were only down 37 right? 37! It’s all relative. Because if this were even a year ago, down 37 points would be great news. Yet, when you’re below 8000, down anything is really bad. It seems as if the market is free falling and I’m beginning to wonder where it will stop. Maybe one day I will sign onto Yahoo! Finance and kaboom! It wont even exist. That’s not funny, actually.
Who is up today eh?
The solar sector has been struggling, as most investors consider the stocks high risk. I used to follow First Solar (FSLR) a lot in the beginning of this blog because they were at the frontier of low-cost production for the alternative energy field and saw consistent gains for weeks. First Solar is one of the few companies right now whose earnings beat consensus estimates, despite the notably weak solar sector. FSLR reported yesterday they made $1.61 a share this past quarter. Expectations were only $1.30 a share. They have been able to keep manufacturing costs down and had revenues ahead of estimates (well, they did reduce 2009 estimated by 10%, but estimates shmestimates). With Obama’s administration pushing alternative energy initiates, this company could really advance.
FSLR’s CEO, Michael Ahearn, said “In three to five years, the market outlook for solar has never been better, but the short-term outlook for the solar industry has never looked more difficult.”
So while FSLR may be a risky stock, it could very well be a good play if you know what your doing and are good at timing. To see how investors are feeling I looked at sentiment for FSLR on PredictWallStreet’s sentiment meter. First, you must make a prediction to see the data. You can always go back and change your prediction if you change your mind after looking at the data. Looking under the sentiment tab, one month, I see that sentiment is very green. This mean’s investors are feeling extremely bullish about FSLR. Looking at sentiment is helpful because if I see a dramatic change in investor sentiment, I can anticipate that the price will most likely shift accordingly. Looking at the poll results, a striking 80% of investors predicted that FSLR will close up. And lastly, looking at the Star Performers (the users on the site are rated on a star system by their accuracy in predictions) I see that all rated Star Performers predicted up. So, I can very well assume the price will move up.
I know I’m on that Apple diet, but just a real quick Apple snack. Apple was at the top of Fortunes Top 100 Most Admired Companies list. And investors love Apple-lookey here. Phew, ok that’s it. Back to the treadmill.
Stumble It!
WallStreetis4Lovers 
Very well authored and understood!
I favor President Obama’s Stimulus plan, as you can see by my recent posting:
And sure hope it works for all Americans, everywhere!