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Clean energy stocks faced a challenging day in Friday’s trading session, reacting to the previous night’s presidential debate which many believe may favor Donald Trump over President Biden. Investors seem to be factoring in a potential shift after Biden’s performance was widely criticized.
First Solar, a major beneficiary of the Biden administration’s climate subsidies and a key player in the clean energy sector, experienced significant losses, ranking as the second-largest decliner on the S&P 500 for the day, with a decrease of -9.8%.
Other notable losers included AES Corp. (-7.9%), Enphase Energy (-5.2%), Quanta Services (-4.6%), and NextEra Energy (-3.9%), among the top 10 decliners on the S&P 500.
Besides First Solar, solar stocks like Maxeon Solar (-23.8%), Sunnova Energy (-14.3%), Sunrun (-10.6%), Canadian Solar (-4.8%), JinkoSolar (-3.5%), and Array Technologies (-3.2%) also recorded substantial declines.
In the alternative energy sector, companies such as TPI Composites (-8%), Bloom Energy (-6.1%), Plug Power (-5.3%), Stem (-3.5%), and Clean Energy Fuels (-3.2%) all experienced negative movement.
Furthermore, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) like (XLE), (TAN), (FAN), (ICLN), (QCLN), (PBW), (PBD), (ACES), (CNRG), (ERTH), and (SMOG) were also impacted.