The stock market rally since March has been impressive, but it hasn't gone straight up. Repeatedly, stocks get hit for brief periods only to bounce back toward new heights. That happened on Wednesday, as market participants decided not to worry about President Trump's having called off discussions about further economic stimulus measures. Just before 11:30 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI -0.98%) was up 430 points to 28,203. The S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.46%) picked up 43 points to 3,404, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -0.64%) moved higher by 150 points to 11,305.
Stocks related to cloud computing have done extremely well, and positive sentiment was a big driver for Fastly (FSLY -3.35%) and its stock. First, though, SunPower (SPWR -3.09%) managed to produce a nice gain as analysts watching the solar technology company had good things to say about its future.
A day in the sun
Shares of SunPower were higher by almost 16% Wednesday morning. The move came after another set of Wall Street analysts took a closer look at the solar module maker and liked what they saw.
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Analysts at Piper Sandler started their coverage of SunPower with an overweight rating. Overall, the analysts like the prospects for companies that are focusing on residential solar power systems, because thus far, only around 3% to 4% of potentially eligible homeowners have taken advantage of the opportunities to build home-based systems.
Piper believes that SunPower is its favorite among solar providers and installations could jump considerably over the long run. Piper set a $20 per-share price target on the stock, which offers a little over 10% upside even from today's current price.
Renewable power has a lot of promise, and companies are doing well even with conventional fuels like oil at rock-bottom prices. A continuing uptrend could make SunPower's prospects look a lot brighter in the years to come.
Up the stock chart, Fastly
Meanwhile, tech favorite Fastly managed to produce a 13% rise in its stock. The internet data transfer facilitator has been on a massive run in 2020, and after a pause over the past couple of months, Wednesday's move reflected restored confidence in its prospects.
Fastly's mission is to help get digital content where it needs to be more quickly. It does so with edge computing technology, essentially anticipating traffic flows and reducing the time necessary to give people the data they've asked to get. With top customers like TikTok and Spotify, Fastly has become a much-valued service among big businesses.
Last week's acquisition of Signal Sciences should also help Fastly accelerate its growth. Signal offers cybersecurity for web applications in a programmable format, giving clients flexibility in how they implement security procedures. Fastly hopes to take Signal's success and use it toward offering a fully programmable cybersecurity product.
Fastly isn't the only cloud-based stock doing well on Wednesday, as the entire industry has tended to contribute toward good market days. Investors are more confident than ever that Fastly has what it takes to justify its rich valuation and produce stellar growth well into the future.
