Why Are Solar Stocks Climbing Today? (SOL, SOLF, FSLR)

Solar stocks are surging this morning amid concerns about rising oil prices. Early this morning, media sources began reporting that a terrorist bomb struck the largest pipeline in Iraq -- Zubair-1 -- sending the price of crude oil higher. Investors often trade alternative energy companies as a way to play significant moves in oil, thus today's sector-wide jump in solar stocks.

Furthermore, investors may be viewing several other news items as positives for the sector: strong Q4 earnings reported this morning by Solarfun (Nasdaq: SOLF) and a positive Soleil Securities Group research report on First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR), often considered the "best of breed" solar company by Wall Street. Check out StreetInsider's analysis of Solarfun's earnings report here and our summary of the Soleil report on First Solar here.

Accordingly, two hours into today's trading session, the largest percentage gainer (for stocks with a $1 billion+ market cap) is ReneSola (NYSE: SOL), a Chinese solar company that manufactures solar wafers. Shares of ReneSola have risen about $2.09, or 21%, from yesterday's close. ReneSola's stock most recently traded at $12.02 and has seen unusually high volume today (1.62 million shares so far) compared to its average daily volume of about 600,000 shares.

Since going public on January 29, shares of ReneSola have fallen more than 7%, and, notably, before this weeks rise in ReneSola's stock price (up about 50%), the Company's stock was actually down more than 30% after pricing at $13.

Here are several other Chinese solar stocks that are on the move today:

• Solarfun Power Holdings (Nasdaq: SOLF) up 18.9%
  
• Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) up 9.2%
  
• Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) up 8%
  
• China Sunergy (Nasdaq: CSUN) up 8%
  
• Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) up 7.3%
  
• JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO) up 6%

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