Taking Stock

I'm happy to see that the majority of the negative sentiment has been worked out of the overall market now. To me, it seems as though the markets have been developing a base for what I hope will be an upward trend. It seems as though they have been putting in higher highs and higher lows, which is a good sign. The homebuilders have been in an uptrend, along with the Transports and the Industrials. I noticed that the unemployment rate and the unemployment insurance claims increased, but they are more than likely short-term and are far from recessionary.

I was a little worried this past thursday morning when I was watching CNBC, because MEMC Electronics Materials (WFR) reported guidance of lower revenues for the coming quarter. Hence, the stock was down by around 11% at the open in the morning. Luckily, as it turns out, the decrease in revenues was simply due to a temporary shutdown of one of their production facilities. I took the opportunity to buy more shares, like I have been wanting to do fo quite some time, and the stock has since recovered the majority of that downside. My only concern for this company and the stock is the increasing development and production of thin-film solar cells. Silicon based PV cells still have over 90% of the market share of solar cells, but there is the possibility for that to change.

I recieved the annual report for Hexcel (HXL) in the mail yesterday. I thought it was interesting that composite materials have been increasingly being used in the construction of aircraft, and in larger proportions. In fact, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner will have about 50% of its' weight composed of composite materials, and similar proportions for the Airbus A380. I'm looking forward to the A380 and the 787 going into production, and hopefully that will be soon. Boeing and Airbus make up around 50% of the revenues for Hexcel.