Monthly Archives: March 2013

Tom Konrad CFA Clip Art by Phillip Martin February was a month of consolidation after blistering January returns in clean energy stocks, and the market in general.  My clean energy benchmark, the Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Index (PBW), declined 2.2%, while the broad universe of small cap stocks which I benchmark with the iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (IWM) eked out a 0.6% gain. My ten clean energy picks for 2013 (introduced ...

Doug Young The number 94 seems to have special meaning for BYD (HKEx: 1211; 002594; OTC:BYDDF), the struggling car maker backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, which has just reported some preliminary data that show its profit last year fell 94 percent as it failed reverse its sharp decline of the last 2 years. But perhaps more alarming, this new data show the company's operations fell into the loss column in the last 3 months of 2012, even though it technically remained profitable overall due to strong government support. That means that 2013 could continue to...

Doug Young A couple of new items from the battered solar sector hint that the situation may be improving for the largest companies, even as smaller players continue to struggle and face the very real danger of collapse. Of course I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that I've predicted a rebound for this embattled sector once or twice before based on optimistic company statements, and in each instance the rebound I was sensing never came. This time the difference could be that many smaller players have now closed or are tottering on the brink of insolvency,...