Remember, elections are about benefitting some industries at the expense of others. One sector deemed likely to benefit if Obama wins is solar (although you might imagine McCain helping to boost their fortunes, as part of his "all of the above" energy policy).
As such, the solar stocks are rallying ahead of tonight's results. SunPower is up about 15%, while First Solar is up 8%. First Solar is well off its lows made just over a week ago. But the path to the solar promised land might not be as easy as just electing Obama
TechTraderDaily: While it may be true in the long run that an Obama presidency will be good for solar shares, a change of administrations will not be a cure-all. Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov this morning cautioned that investors should not expect any “instant gratification in terms of new goodies from Washington,” especially given that Congress has already approved an 8-year extension of the solar investment tax credit.
“We agree with the general premise that an Obama White House/Democratic Congress combination sets up the prospect for a greater amount of federal action on the renewables front than would be the cae under Senate McCain,” Molchanov writes. “However, we do not envision immediate action (within, say, the first 100 days) on these issues. To put it bluntly, while solar and wind are important, there are much bigger things on the plate that policymakers in the U.S. are understandably focusing on within the context of the global financial crisis.”
Beyond that, solar won't be able to escape the market. Even with subsidies, uneconomical investments (due to expensive financing or cheaper alternative) aren't likely to catch fire.
See Also: