Downgrades Catch Up to Solar Stocks (FSLR, SPWRA, STP, more..)

After opening today's trading session substantially higher, solar stocks are now trading deeply in negative territory on the back of several Deutsche Bank reports in which the firm downgraded First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR), SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA), Energy Conversion Devices (Nasdaq: ENER) and Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) from Buy to Hold and Suntech (NYSE: STP) from Hold to Sell.

Buoyed by a wave of buying early this morning on news that China has planned a $586 billion economic stimulus package, solar stocks began trading about 6% higher this morning (as measured by a popular solar ETF, the Claymore/MAC Global Solar Index (NYSE: TAN), or the TAN). As the US indices came off their session highs, however, so did the solar stocks. As word of the Deutsche downgrades made their way around Wall Street, investors continued selling solar names. The TAN is now down nearly 4%.

Shares of First Solar are currently down 6.5%, shares of SunPower are down 4%, Suntech is down 10%, and Energy Conversion Devices is down 3%. Elsewhere in the sector: JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO) down 14%, Solarfun (Nasdaq: SOLF) down 6%, China Sunergy (Nasdaq: CSUN) down 5%, LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) down 3.4%, and Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) down 3.4%.

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