Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of LED lighting specialist Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) lit up a 12.4% intraday price jump on heavy volume.

So what: Other alternative lighting experts also soared today: Veeco Instruments (Nasdaq: VECO) gained as much as 19.5%, OLED guru Universal Display (Nasdaq: PANL) notched a 17.4% top, and microcap SemiLEDS (Nasdaq: LEDS) crushed 'em all with a 41% jump. Why all this alt-light enthusiasm? Because China plans to ban incandescent light bulbs over the next five years, thus creating a ginormous market for replacements. Conversely, light bulb giants Philips (NYSE: PHG), Siemens (NYSE: SI), and General Electric (NYSE: GE) all fell 3% or more today.

Now what: In particular, these Westerners are jumping for joy because China's local LED industry is several years behind the technology curve according to industry analysts. Regular old 100-watt bulbs will be banned from sale in China less than a year from now, with steps down the power scale to outlaw 15-watt bulbs in 2016. America already has a similar plan going on, but China is simply a much larger market.

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