Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Solar: Have We Hit The Bottom In Demand?(JASO; SOL; STP; TSL; YGE)

From Tech Trader Daily:

Has solar demand - and the slide in solar shares - finally hit bottom?

The solar analysts at Merrill Lynch think so. In a piece authored by analysts Lu Yeung, Vincent Chow, Matthew Yates and Steve Millunovich, Merrill this morning asserts that “improving second derivative trends” suggest the industry is headed for a cyclical bottom.

The Merrill analysts assert that, while there is not likely to be a recovery in demand until early 2010, Q4 2008 and Q1 2009 “will mark the shipment bottom,” with modest sequential increases in subsequent quarters....MORE

Mr. Savitz has been as on top of the zeitgeist as anyone in the media. If only it weren't so depressing to wade through the rest of the tech headlines to get to the solar (I swear, one day last month, 20 headlines announced 40 layoffs).

On the other hand, I use the headlines as a personal indicator, when I get to the point that I am inured to the human misery of folks getting pink slips, we're probably due for a run in the Nasdaq. That was one of the non-quantitative factors in leaning bullish the last day of January.