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Strategies & Market Trends : Joe Copia's daytrades/investments and thoughts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yellow Jacket who wrote (24055)	1/8/2002 9:51:04 PM
From: Jim Bishop	Respond to of 25711

Here's your answer, lots of fuel cell stocks got a big boost today. GM car, reported gov't plan boost fuel cell stocks (UPDATE: adds other stocks impacted by news) By Philip Klein NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Alternate energy source stocks soared on Tuesday as General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) unveiled a new energy efficient car at Detroit's annual auto show on Monday and on reports that the U.S Department of Energy plans to invest in research of fuel cells as an energy substitute, analysts said. Across the board on Tuesday, shares of companies which develop technology that use fuel cells to create electricity from hydrogen, saw double-digit percentage increases. The Canadian firm Ballard Power Systems (Toronto:BLD.TO - news) (NasdaqNM:BLDP - news), which analysts said could benefit the most from the expected announcement because its technology is developed for automotive use, saw its stock jump $4.55, or nearly 15 percent, to a 10-week high of $34.96. ``The stocks are moving on expectations of the U.S. Department of Energy's announcement,'' said Marko Pencak of Credit Suisse First Boston. ``Our view is that Ballard Power is in the best position to benefit because it is in the automotive rather than stationary energy sector.'' But nonetheless, companies with stationary alternate energy interests rose as well, including Danbury, Connecticut-based FuelCell Energy Inc.(NasdaqNM:FCEL - news), whose shares rose $3.93, or nearly 22 percent, to $21.85 and Plug Power Inc.(NasdaqNM:PLUG - news), which bounced $3.38, or 39 percent, to $12.04. ``These stocks normally move in tandem,'' said Erc Prouty analyst at Adams, Harkness & Hill, saying they all surged during last year's California energy crisis. ``The sector has been beaten up recently and was due for a bit of a bounce.'' GM on Monday unveiled a new car it called the Autonomy, which uses fuel cell technology. The U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham was expected to announce a program on Wednesday with the heads of GM, Ford Motor Co.(NYSE:F - news) and the Chrysler arm of DaimlerChrysler AG (NYSE:DCX - news) . Under the program, expected to be called ``Freedom Car,'' the government would fund research into fuel cells, which use hydrogen to produce electricity without creating pollution as gasoline engines do. A half a dozen other stocks received a boost from the news, including Millennium Cell Inc. (NasdaqNM:MCEL - news) , Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (NasdaqNM:ENER - news), H Power Corp. (NasdaqNM:HPOW - news), Electric Fuel Corp. (NasdaqNM:EFCX - news), Active Power Inc. (NasdaqNM:ACPW - news) and IMPCO Technologies Inc. (NasdaqNM:IMCO - news) But some analysts said the markets were overreacting. Gary Holdsworth of Wedbush Morgan Securities said he has been concerned investors do not understand that efforts to develop fuel cell-powered cars must still overcome major obstacles such as building an infrastructure to supply hydrogen. He said investors may be expecting too much from Wednesday's announcement. Holdsworth noted that Wednesday's announcement at the Detroit auto show does not involve any major energy companies. ``That tempers my enthusiasm a little bit. The stocks had a nice run today, but they could easily give up half of it (Wednesday),'' he said. ``It may not be what people are envisioning such as a call to arms like a Manhattan Project.''