Solar Stocks Tumble as Crude Oil Slips Under $68 (TAN, FSLR, STP, YGE)

With crude oil down nearly 4% to under $67.50 today, alternative energy stocks are getting hammered. Solar stocks, as measured by the Claymore/MAC Global Solar Index ETF (NYSE: TAN), seem to be leading the group lower and are down nearly 6%.

Solar stocks often trade in tandem with oil prices as a decline in the commodity often eases consumer tensions to quickly find alternatives to oil. Notably, natural gas stocks and wind-power stocks are also moving lower. The US Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG) and First Trust Global Wind Energy (NYSE: FAN) are widely-traded ETF's for each of these groups.

In the solar sector: shares of the popular First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) have tumbled more than 5% on heavy volume, MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE: WFR) shares are down 5%, Suntech (NYSE: STP) stock is down 7% to $16.79, SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA) shares are down nearly 8% and Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE), which had its price target lifted to $18.50 at Collins Stewart earlier, is down 5% to $12.65.

Notably, volume in each of these stocks (an also the ETF's) is pretty heavy this morning. Shares of First Solar, for example, have already traded about 1.8 million times, which compares to its average daily volume of just 3.7 million shares.

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