Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
The stock market proved to be somewhat of a disappointment on Black Friday, as an early rally that looked like it would send major-market benchmarks to new record highs yet again proved short-lived. In the end, the broad market's rise fizzled, but SolarCity (SCTY.DL), Pan American Silver (PAAS 0.93%), and National Bank of Greece (NBG.DL) posted solid gains. Let's take a closer look at all three stocks to see what's behind their positive moves.
SolarCity gained 7% as investors chose to accentuate the positives of its residential-solar business. SolarCity has had a volatile November, with the stock rising and falling sharply on various news. In the long run, though, SolarCity has done an amazingly good job of ramping up demand for residential solar projects in the U.S., taking full advantage of available subsidies to make those moves cost-effective for homeowners. With the potential of solar-lease securitization potentially helping it get rid of some of the risk of financing its customers, SolarCity has plenty of upside potential left.
Pan American Silver rose 6%, far outperforming the roughly 1.25% gain in silver bullion prices today. Yesterday, the silver-mining company said it would repurchase up to 5% of its common shares. The authorization to do so will begin on Dec. 5 and last for a year. Yet as happy as investors were to see the program, Pan American's past efforts to buy back shares should give them pause. The company said that in its last buyback program, the company bought back more than 1 million shares at an average price above $17 per share -- more than 50% above current levels.
National Bank of Greece climbed 6%, reflecting the health of the Greek economy in the aftermath of its massive debt crisis in recent years. In the bank's earnings conference call earlier this week, Deputy CEO Petros Christodoulou described Greece's economic outlook as having improved significantly, pointing to better government budget and current-account conditions and private-sector activity picking up, including corporate bond issuance and M&A activity. With National Bank of Greece relying on a healthy Greek economy to prosper, the positive comments are welcome after such a long period of uncertainty.
