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 Chinese solar power expert Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) lit up with a 16.9% intraday gain on below-average trading volume.

So what: Rising oil prices are boosting alternative fuel stocks across the board as they are becoming more price-competitive, but there's another piece to Yingli's particular puzzle. The company just set up a project leasing firm in the U.S. in order to capture more American business, according to Taiwanese tech daily DigiTimes.

Now what: Banks are slow to lend money to solar installations here, and the leasing initiative is meant to overcome that hurdle. Easy project financing should lead to more deals, the theory goes. Yingli is hardly the first Chinese company to try this tactic as rivals from LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) to JA Solar Holdings (Nasdaq: JASO) have already set up similar operations -- but better late than never, right?

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