The past several weeks have been a nightmare for equities, as global unrest continues to batter markets. Just as it seemed that the U.S. was making strong progress to pre-recession levels, with the Dow breaking 12,000, protests broke out in the Middle East, causing waves of worry throughout the investing world.
As protests spread from country to country, oil and gold began making strong runs as both commodities hit their highest levels seen for quite some time. But now, the Libyan protests are on the backburner as Japan suffered one of the worst earthquakes recorded in history. The quake caused major devastation in the nation, with tidal waves, massive flooding, and several nuclear reactors now in danger of leaking radiation [see also Nuclear ETF Meltdown: 4 Funds Rocked by the Japanese Quake].The quake was recorded at a 9.0, and caused tidal wave warnings and evacuations in at least 20 countries. Tsunamis struck in various heights all along the Japanese coast, with the highest official recording coming in at roughly 25 feet. To give you an idea of how severe this disaster is, the quake moved Honshu, the main island of Japan, by nearly eight feet, and the entire earth shifted on its axis by nearly four inches. But now that the damage from the massive waves has nearly finished, there is a great fear surrounding several nuclear reactors in the northern part of the country, as the risk of a full-scale meltdown remains present [see Japan ETFs In Focus After Devastating Quake].
With this horrific news, stock markets have been in near free fall the past few days, with nuclear energy firms taking the brunt of the blow. But as the majority of stocks are plummeting, one sector is seeing astronomical gains; solar power. The Guggenheim Solar ETF
In light of the current problems facing nuclear energy, and solar energy's stellar performance this week, today's ETF to watch will be the Guggenheim Solar ETF. This ETF is designed to track companies within various sectors of the solar energy industry. The fund's top holdings include First Solar
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
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