Search results matching tag 'Natural Gas Vehicles'

BUY CLEAN GREEN! BEST INVESTMENT THEME FOR DECADES

RichardSchwartz — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:24:00 GMT

CLEAN, GREEN UPDATE. THE NEXT BIG THING IS HERE & WORKING WELL!

For a FREE week of PRINCIPLES OF THE STOCK MARKET, email me at RichardStk@aol.com

Starting back in December 2006, I started writing about the next BIG THING. And have updated it for you continuously ever since. Happily I started on this theme right before the 2007 boom in solar stocks. Since I eat my own cooking, so to speak, I was able to capture some doubles and more in companies like First Solar (FSLR), Suntech Power (STP) and a couple others. Hope you were too. That solar boom is over, for the moment -- a good time to nibble, with today’s oversupply of solar but other subsectors of the greater clean green energy universe are now having their day in the sun (pun intended). “Smart grid” stocks, those that help reduce, measure and regulate power usage have recently been hot and I’ve long recommended EnerNOC (ENOC) and Comverge (COMV). Disclaimer! I own small portions of both but can and do change positions without notice. And that’s even before America really starts to modernize our national power grid. Wind and natural gas stocks have been doing well now as have battery and other storage technology after General Motors threw out that figure of over 200 miles per gallon coming with their Chevy Volt. I did publish a decently all-encompassing list back on June 6th, 2008, right in the midst of the 17-month downtrend and asked you to “print, keep handy and archive” it for future use. Last Wednesday, I listed a few additional technology companies which have one foot in clean green and before that, on September 18^th, I posted a winnowed down list of my December 2006 list of about 80 clean green companies outperforming for possible near term trades. And of course a couple times recently I’ve again recommended that new clean green global mutual fund that Steve Leuthold and crew are now offering, which I recommended to you just back in July, that’s Leuthold Clean Green Tech (symbol LGCTX).

I CONTINUE TO BELIEVE THIS IS SHOULD BE #1 THEME FOR LONG TERM INVESTORS and thus let me pound the table again today (even though it’s not Friday when I’ve gotten in the habit of giving you YOUR CLEAN GREEN WEEKEND UPDATE; I’m a man of routine my friends say.). Just want to point out that holding a bunch of clean green stocks is still working well. What I’m finding is that some good news item seems to pop every few days about one of the stocks in my own IRA portfolio, almost totally composed of small lots of lots of clean green companies, and/or also for many of those stocks on my larger shopping list of clean green. My IRA is up over +30% this year and I’m only 50% invested! (Note! I’d be much less invested if this was my fund management money. Like monies that are designated to only go into sector funds or that only can be moved around minimally or that has no clean green choices, again like the money management I do for others.) Anyway, whether it be wind, geothermal, energy storage, battery technology, fuel cells, etc. etc, whatever, there are lots of clean green niches, I’d buy ‘em all and cover all bases. Yesterday one US wind company got a big contract from a Chinese firm and popped +10% (in a ragged stock market), that’s happened numerous times as China pushes clean green too. Back a week ago a reader sent me an email that three of his very low priced clean greens were all up nicely that day when he checked. I hold one of them so I won’t mention that name but two others I used to hold, not right now but maybe I’ll buy them back on weakness down the road, were Medis Tech (symbol MDTL) up +24% and Hydrogenics (HYGS) up +13%. Schwartz View: Bottom line, pull out my original shopping list of clean green, which I’ve run in various and updated forms numerous times over the last couple of years, review it and then buy small amounts of lots of clean green stocks. That way when a breakthrough occurs, wherever you’ll benefit while the rising tide carries all ships (almost all) over time. That was my original game plan for all of us and remains so and continues working nicely. By the way I’d buy BEFORE the scheduled December Copenhagen global conference. The rationale again is the world is going clean green because it has to. We all know that. Going clean green creates new jobs which we desperately need, cuts down on oil money somehow finding its way into terrorists hands and respects and protects Mother Earth. And when we forget we have to go green for a brief moment, some report about global warming comes out and reminds us.. China knows it, Europe knows it and America, our scientists, our government, our businesses (who wants rules in place so they can move forward with capital spending plans), our venture capitalists know it and our everyday Americans know it. All except for the pure unadulterated capitalists holdout contingent who won’t admit such because in their blindered view “it hurts business.” Let me say again: There is a critical mass for going Code Green and a critical mass means there’s no stopping it, maybe something, some event, can hold it back for a time, but there’s no stopping it.

THIS IS THE #1 BEST INVESTMENT THEME FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF DECADES!

Come on, get on board!

What Obama Rally?

RichardSchwartz — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:04:00 GMT

WHAT OBAMA RALLY? The Obama Rally hasn’t proven to be have much substance, at least not yet. If we track stock prices back to Election Day, November 4^th, the stock market hasn’t done much, in fact the S&P 500, the pro’s benchmark, is down -13.43%. Then, since Inauguration Day, January 20^th, again the stock market hasn’t gone anywhere either, the S&P is down -1.59%. But I still have hope. At look at my wall charts, or anywhere access charts, shows the stock market in general is down near the bottom end of its last three month trading range. But not broken below! So for aggressive traders the odds say now or soon is a good time to buy, to go long, for a bounce at least to the top end. Of course, only for those traders who can pull the trigger on losses if the bottom end of this range suddenly falls out. (Many say they are traders but can’t get themselves to sell when they are supposed to, can’t stand taking losses.)

A Target Date For Traders. We also now have a target date to shoot at which is always helpful. Remember the original target date to unload after the year end Santa Claus rally was the first couple of days of 2009, which looking back proved a perfect strategy with the Dow topping out on the first trading day of the year, Friday, January 2^nd and giving us a second chance to sell above Dow 9000 on the following Tuesday, January 6^th. Since then, nada. Stocks have fallen sharply the rest of January, closing below 8000 last Tuesday & kicking off trading today at Dow 8116.03. Past history, not to be forgotten, let’s move on.

Stimulus Plan Passing. Now we have passing the very important, about $800 billion dollar, economic stimulus plan to shoot at as a “selling on the fact” date. In other words, an opportunity to buy stocks here, the stocks which should benefit from the government money going towards specific industry niches and sectors. So I’ve been compiling a list of potential beneficiaries which I want to unveil this morning. My suggestion is to buy a couple of even a package of the below stocks with the plan to sell them when a bill passes Congress. Right now I hear the target date to get a plan passed is mid-February. The backup plan, in the stock market we always need an exit plan and a backup plan when we get involved, is to sell half on bill passage and keep half if the stock market has convinced us that the last three months was indeed base building and we’ve started off on a new short term or cyclical, mini bull market, encompassed in our larger secular bear market.

SMART GRID TECHNOLOGIES. This is the area where we need to modernize America’s electricity/power transmission system. As Michael Morris, CEO of American Electric Power detailed recently our power grid was originally built piecemeal by local utilities and designed to serve only local regions. Thus it’s “far from being an efficient national-delivery system” and “hasn’t seen significant investment for more than 30 years.” The concept is we need a more powerful nationwide transmission system to get power from one part of the country to another, where needed. Especially now that we’re also going to bring online new renewable energy sources like wind and solar. If we could shoot the solar power generated in the desert to population centers with the flick of a switch, consider the efficiencies.

So first off, here’s some choices by Seeking Alpha, a boutique research firm:

Price Mkt Cap Wall Street Ranking Business Line

COMV Comverge $4.16 91m 7 buys, 6 holds Demand response provider

ENOC EnerNOC 9.11 184m 8 buys, 6 holds, 1 sell Demand response provider

ITRI Itron 60.01 2068m 9 buys, 8 sells Smart meter reader

Schwartz View: The concept is for grants to utilities for projects which allow utilities and their customers “… to track and manage the flow of energy more effectively, curb peak demand, reduce blackouts and integrate renewable energy and storage (including electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle batteries) into the grid.” I’m big on this as it makes good sense to me. We need a modern, cutting edge transmission system. Disclaimer! I own small pieces of all three companies above, either in my own IRA or in my trading accounts. And can and do change positions quickly and without notice.

RENEWABLE ENERGY. This is the part of the plan which provides money and tax credits for renewable energy providers and research and development in energy conservation and energy efficiency. Two companies poised to benefit from clean, green renewable energy companies, according to a Bloomberg article authored by Thomas Black on December 17^th are:

AKNS Akeena Solar 2.00 58m 1 buy, 6 holds Solar energy

CREE Cree, Inc 19.80 1752m 7 buys, 5 holds, 4 holds Energy efficient lighting

Schwartz View: I don’t know why the only solar stock on Mr. Black’s list was a penny stock. So beware! But there are lots and lots of solar stocks which could benefit led by market leader First Solar (FSLR), so let me expand this list.

FSLR First Solar, Inc. 139.05 11,275m 27 buys, 8 holds, 2 sells Thin-film tech solar modules

ENER Energy Conversion 24.79 1133m 7 buys, 10 holds, 3 sells Thin-film solar laminates

SPWRA SunPower Corp 28.80 2153m 21 buys, 11 holds, 3 sells Integrated solar products

INFRASTRUCTURE. Besides our electric power transmission grid another part of America’s infrastructure which needs rebuilding and modernizing is our transportation system originally built by President Eisenhower in the 1950s. It’s in dire need now and President Obama plans to spend the largest sum of money since it was built on updating it. Again, this is pointed not only to creating jobs now and in forthcoming years but will put us where we want to end up, with a modern system capable of helping America stay globally competitive in shipping our goods around the country and overseas. Some companies I’ve read about, and common sense tells us will benefit, are:

CAT Caterpillar 32.67 19,707m 7 buys, 13 holds, 3 sells Earth moving equipment

CX Cemex SAB 8.33 6768m 3 buys, 9 holds, 3 sells Big cement provider

CRH CRH plc 24.08 12,818m 1 buy, 1 hold Irish cement co covers US

MTW Manitowoc Co 6.21 809m 3 buys, 8 holds, 2 sells Maker of assorted cranes

QUIX Quixote 4.03 37m 1 buy, 2 holds Highway safety products

TEX Terex Corp 13.94 1322m 8 buys, 8 holds Heavy duty trucks/cranes

ENGINEERING. There are numerous other sectors which should benefit in rebuilding our roads, bridges, national parks. Some engineering firms are:

JEC Jacobs Engineering 40.56 4986m 9 buys, 5 holds, 2 sells Construction management

FLR Fluor Corp 41.04 7449m 11 buys, 4 holds, 3 sells Construction services

ABB ABB Limited 12.20 28,338m 9 buys, 0 holds, 1 sell Power technologies.

Disclaimer! I don’t own any of the remaining 14 stocks above. But I’m watching them and may buy some and/or change positions quickly and without notice at any time.

SCHWARTZ SUMMING UP. There are lots more companies which should benefit. So I plan on providing more names all this week in this space, stay tuned. But generally, this trading and possible investment idea is based on “Trader Vic” Sperandeo’s view (read his two books) that government intervention changes the ground rules of the game and thus provides eagle-eyed traders with money making opportunities. Opportunities for those investors who understand the underlying economic principle involved and then time their moves properly. I agree. Money should flow to some companies for years, buttressing their businesses while other parts of our economy suffer. By the way, big China advocate is basically doing the same for himself, but over in China. China has a major stimulus plan in place also and in fact is implementing it much faster than here in the US because of their command style of capitalism. Rogers sees agricultural, water and infrastructure in China as not even knowing a global recession is on. The play here is similar.

Good trading, speculating and investing!

We Need To Move Past Oil!

RichardSchwartz — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:49:00 GMT

YOUR ALTERNATE CLEAN, GREEN ENERGY WEEKEND UPDATE

With not much stock market stuff to write about since I don’t want to recommend buying or selling this morning as we all should have our portfolios hunkered down and pretty much in place for a rocky and rough summer by now. Sure, stock market aficionados can always fine tune their portfolios and do some long and short trading, trying to scalp some profits here and there while long term investors stand pat, but with not that much going on, please let me rant and rave a little about those people out there who are slow in moving forward on American’s vital energy issue. And, don’t get me wrong, we all have to change our mindsets about energy and life in America and it will take everyone their own period of time since we’re all coming from different lifestyles, histories, jobs and places. Still, change is a coming now – I agree with George Soros who writes he sees America and the world moving from an established order and certainty to great change and thus greater uncertainty -- and we’ll all have to adapt. No problem for us Americans as that’s what we’ve always done; we’ve always adapted to change well.

“Drill, drill, drill!” I almost can’t believe Larry Kudlow on CNBC this morning. That’s his mantra: Drill, drill, drill. OMG (Oh my gosh!) I have to believe Larry, “a great American” no doubt and always bullish, is living on another planet or is somewhere back decades in time. He just doesn’t get it! But then I shouldn’t be so harsh on Larry. Millions of American’s still don’t get it as well. Though I’m delighted to see T. Boone Pickens gets it as he is now paying millions for TV ads publicizing The Pickens Plan, his idea to harness America’s wind corridor running north to south from Canada to West Texas, replacing natural gas as an energy source for cities and use that natural gas to power America’s vehicles.

Anyway, Larry just will have to realize that economic growth isn’t the be all and end all. Near term growth is just near term growth. We really need long term, sustainable economic progress to make the US and world a more prosperous place. And that switching from oil today, while a big burden now, is the best thing for us and for future generations to come. Thus we shouldn’t be doing anything to drive down oil and thus gas prices today. We need to leave them be because high and higher gas prices now will help drive America in getting off oil by creating profit in developing alternative power sources. That more and more Americans see this already and those that don’t will soon wake up to this fact going forward, and are or will be willing to sacrifice for the good of the country. And that this major change over – like moving to indoor plumbing, to railroads, to cars, to electricity in generations past – can be and should be done.

So my major #1 point is that we don’t want to drill for oil any more! Certainly not lift the moratorium on offshore drilling like President Bush has just proposed and Larry got all excited about. Or go up to Alaska and ruin one of the last remaining unspoiled parts of our planet and home. For what? Temporary relief and to lower by a dollar or so gas prices now? And then a few decades from now, when we use up that offshore and Alaskan oil, we’ll just have to address the same issue once again?

You’re not convinced? You still want to know more reasoning why we shouldn’t drill for oil any longer? Well, because we have to move beyond using oil as a power source. That’s the bottom line. We immediately have to start putting any and all plans in place now, today, to stop using oil and dirty coal as well. Now, I know what some of you are thinking: “Richard, get realistic! That’s impossible.” Maybe Larry Kudlow and George Bush 2 are thinking that too, that there’s no way to get off oil and coal. But someone has to give them a (loving) slap across their cheeks and wake them up to coming change. It is a total change of mindset but it’s happening here and all over the world. It’s happening here with movies such as Wall E. Lucy saw that movie with her granddaughter Elizabeth and says it make her more into a green believer. And the influence that movies have is great, thus every kid who sees the movie will be left with the unconscious thought that they’d better live a green, clean, low carbon footprint life.

And, as I’ve consistently written since December 2006, I’ve noted a critical mass already built up supporting a change in how we live on this planet. From scientists, to governments to large and small business alike, to venture capitalists, to individuals. Supported by logic, the reasoning that using a cleaner energy source will: (1) be a major, maybe knock out blow to global terrorism, (2) create millions of new jobs in the US and globally and thus spur the whole world into a new more prosperous phase and of course, be a big step forward in leaving Mother Earth at least as clean and healthy as we found it, just the right way to live. Back in December 2006 as a result, I took my own advice to you all and started using 95% of my IRA account to just buy small allotments of any and all companies involved in inventing, using, working on alternative, clean renewable energy sources. I’ve posited here time after time that fortunes will be made by those companies and individuals pursuing this same course. Thus I’ve listed many times in this space as many companies involved in alternative power as I could find. Solar companies, wind companies, battery technology, hydrogen tech, geothermal, thin film solar technology, energy savers, and on and on and on. And I must say this strategy has worked. My Ira has risen while the stock market has been on a slide for the last year now.

SCHWARTZ SUMMING UP. Sure we still need oil and coal today and let’s find more where we can, where we’re already drilling. But we need a new mindset in America and I see it as already occurring, already in place and inevitable that it’s going to change America and the world as we know now it. Better to ride this incoming tide, open up our minds to new thinking by ourselves rather than have it forced down our throats. Some will not see this major change coming or resist it, not being able to adapt to a new world ahead, but not so my readers, I hope. There’s so much support already that there’s no going back so the sooner we all cross over to the other side of this vital energy issue the better.

Yay for the Pickens Plan!

RichardSchwartz — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:19:00 GMT

YOUR ALTERNATE CLEAN GREEN ENERGY UPDATE

Finally! A Plan! The Pickens Plan. Kudos to Mr. Boone Pickens!

Yep, it finally came down to a long time oil man to propose a way out of our energy bind. Obviously, it’s only a first step and it has a lot of hurdles and a long way to go before implementation, but Boone Pickens’ proposal is a great first step. We have to get the ball rolling and the country pulling together again. Plan on seeing advertisements about Pickens’ plan because he plans on publicizing it & has the money to do so.

The Pickens Plan:: To dramatically reduce on dependence on foreign oil.

As Boone Pickens unveiled yesterday, he wants to have private industry fund and build thousands of wind turbines in the middle part of America, in what he calls a wind corridor, running north to south from the Canadian border to West Texas. Which can generate about 20% of our electricity needs! Then transport this wind energy to the Midwest, South and Western metropolitan areas by private industry building electric power transmission lines. This will free up the natural gas now used to fuel these Midwestern, Southern and Western regional power plants. We can then redirect this natural gas to replace imported oil as a fuel for transportation vehicles (cars, etc.). Yay!

Schwartz View: Mr. Pickens goes on to request a monthly report on the reduction in foreign oil imports and the progress of development and implementation of natural gas fired vehicles. I’m 100% for this plan and all others of similar ilk. We do have a serious crisis on our hands and we need to get started now in addressing it. Again, I believe there is already critical mass built toward solving the increasingly critical issues of terrorism, global warming or global pollution, a new impetus to growth and our own national security. And all can be resolved by getting off the use of the dirty power source of oil. Go Pickens Go!

* Finally, many boos for the Group of Eight (G-8) leaders who couldn’t agree on anything about energy in their just finishing up three-day meeting in Japan. They all know something needs to be done but they can’t agree on anything. And our President Bush is one of the worst offenders. I like the man but am anxious to see someone replace him because he just doesn’t get it. America is ready to sacrifice for the worthwhile goals of national security, job growth, fighting terrorism and respecting and cleaning up our planet, but he’s locked into a very bad and losing position and to top it off, is stubborn. Hey, being stubborn when wrong is a big no-no-in investing in the stock market, why not in politics too?

The G-8 statement? They will cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050. Regular readers know when any proposal goes out more than 10 years or so it’s just a sop. And this statement has no plan, no measurements, no starting point, just about nothing. We truly need new global leadership!