One of Wednesday’s bigger stories from the world of exchange traded funds was the carnage in the solar space.
By the time the closing bell rang, the Guggenheim Solar ETF (NYSEArca: TAN) and the Market Vectors Solar Energy ETF (NYSEArca: KWT) finished the day lower by 7.8% and 6.8%, respectively, making the pair the two worst-performing non-leveraged ETFs on the day.
The culprit for the solar ETFs’ woes is Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, shares of which plunged 47% in Hong Kong trading before trading was halted in the stock. Controversy has been swirling around Hanergy, including the fact that its closely held parent company accounted for nearly two-thirds of last year’s revenue. [Reason for Caution With Solar ETFs]
Wednesday’s declines at the hands of Hanergy Thin Film and previous declines caused by t he realization that Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE), the world’s second-largest solar manufacturer by shipments in 2014, may not be in business much longer have exposed some technical weakness for TAN, the largest of the two solar ETFs. [Hanergy Punishes Solar ETFs]
Regarding TAN’s technical state of affair’s Street One Financial market technician David Chojnacki had the following to say: “Back in March of 2014 it hit a weekly high(near 50), but several months later, in July of 2014, broke a year and a half uptrend-line. It continued in a downward trend until breaking that downtrend in March of 2015. Recently in April of 2015, it matched the March 2014 high of 50, developing a double top.”
TAN’s technical weakness belies some positive fundamentals.