As we mentioned yesterday, solar stocks were setting up for a fall. We're basically down to just holding positions (0.1% stakes) in our 3 names after selling the last batch into yesterday's Obama hype.

It appears Sunpower (SPWRA) is not helping matters with a warning on currency fluctuations impacting earnings. This should not come to a surprise to the market since the dollar has gone haywire versus the Euro, but apparently it is. And as we said yesterday there are certain "arms dealers" who sell mostly within a country (China) who are not at all affected by currency (or very little) and hence the stocks should not sell off on this sort of news - but there is no differentiation in this market - so "student body left" and "student body right". We own 2 of those arms dealers but they will get sold off just as badly on this type of news. I am finding this sector almost uninvestable because there is always something that comes up that creates worries - so you have a "glow" around good news announcements and then the other 95% of the quarter the stocks sell off. This has been the pattern for a long time - it is too bad.

• Shares of solar power companies slumped on Wednesday, a day after SunPower Corp (SPWRA) warned that recent gains in the U.S. dollar would hurt earnings growth in the fourth quarter and next year. The announcement was likely to be the first of many in the fast-growing solar industry, analysts said.
• Shares of SunPower Corp. lost more than a quarter of their value Wednesday
• "SunPower is not alone, but is early with its update," Oppenheimer analyst Sam Dubinsky said in a client note. "Most industry peers have yet to report earnings, though will likely issue guidance that points to similar headwinds."
• Solar companies are vulnerable to fluctuations in the dollar-euro rate since Germany and Spain are two of the largest markets for the renewable energy source. Other European markets, including Italy and Greece, are also growing rapidly.
• SunPower's announcement sent solar stocks tumbling across the board, erasing some of the double-digit gains the industry enjoyed in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election. Investors had been buying up solar stocks on the expectation that a victory by Sen.