Martin Hutchinson analyses what a Democrat landslide means for investors. He says nuclear and clean energy stocks, auto manufacturers, generic drug producers and muni bonds are a “buy”. But fossil fuel companies and financial institutions should be avoided.
How will the stock markets respond to a new US president? Martin Delholm says the impact will be less than some people expect. But some sectors will benefit from a regime change. With Obama the clear favourite to win, Martin recommends three clean energy stocks likely to gain from new subsidies.
The British government gave a huge boost to wind energy stocks this week, opening bidding for offers to build up to 25 gigawatts of offshore wind turbines by 2020 — triple the amount previously planned.
The European Union has set a target date of 2020 for 20% of its energy to come from renewable sources. The British Wind Energy Association said Britain will contribute 15%, meaning up to 40% of the country’s power will come from wind energy by the target date.
“The richest investment opportunities can be found in the fast-emerging alternative energy sector,” says Mike Burnick in The Offshore A-Letter.
T Boone Pickens’ recent oil price forecast — he sent oil surging last month with a forecast of oil at $150 a barrel by the end of this year — may not have come true yet, but that diminished the legendary oilman’s status as oil oracle among investors.
When he’s not making oil price forecasts, Pickens is busy investing in energy. He recently announced that his investment vehicle Mesa Power was putting $2 billion into a Texas wind-energy project, boosting clean energy stocks in the process and delighting the wind-energy lobby.
The PowerShares Clean Energy ETF (PBW) debuted in April 2005.
China is already the world leader in producing solar cells – now it wants to make a grab other sectors of the alternative energy market.
“Prepare for the onslaught of relatively inexpensive Chinese turbines,” said Steve Sawyer, head of the Global Wind Energy Council, in Wired magazine.
In 2007, China became the world’s number one producer of photo-voltaic cells, holding 35% of the market. Sawyer reckons that China will make enough equipment to generate 10 gigawatts of power annually by 2010 — more than half the capacity that the whole world installed in 2007.
Oil crisis 2008: You know when things are getting bad for the oil industry when legendary oil investor T. Boone Pickens starts buying into wind energy.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Pickens, through Mesa Power, ordered 667 wind turbines from General Electric to begin a $10 billion wind-farm project in Texas that will be the nation’s largest.
Delivery of the equipment will begin in mid-2010, Dallas-based Mesa said today in a statement. When completed in 2014, the Pampa Wind Project in northern Texas will be capable of producing 4,000 megawatts,