First Solar (FSLR) Shining as OPEC Plans Another Production Cut

Shares of First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) are trading substantially higher today despite no company-specific news. The stock is currently up 11.75% to $141.28. Notably, First Solar's stock price is up more than 66% since November 20, when the stock hit a new 52-week low at $85.28.

The stock -- and the entire solar sector -- may be seeing upside today on the back of comments out of OPEC that it will cut daily oil production by an unprecedented 2.2 million barrels a day. With crude plummeting from all-time highs over the last few months, OPEC is beginning to look desperately for ways to control the price of a barrel of crude oil. Today's announced cut will be the largest reduction in production in OPEC's history.

Despite the clearly bullish news, crude oil is down nearly 4% today, once again approaching the $40 level.

While oil investors may have priced in the production cut (it was not unexpected), solar investors may have been lagging, hence the drastic upside move today. Besides First Solar, other solar stocks that are seeing material upside on heavy volume today include:

• SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA) up 11% to $35.80
  
• Energy Conversion Devices (Nasdaq: ENER) up 14% to $26.19
  
• JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO) up 17% to $3.40
  
• Suntech (NYSE: STP) up 10.5% to $10.94
  
• LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) up 10.2% to $14.60
  
• Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) up 13.3% to $6.30

First Solar, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells solar electric power modules using a proprietary thin film semiconductor technology.

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