• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Home
  • Daily Diary
  • Asset Class
    • U.S. Equity
    • Fixed Income
    • Global Equity
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
  • Sector
    • Basic Materials
    • Consumer Discretionary
    • Consumer Staples
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Industrials
    • Real Estate
    • Technology
    • Telecom Services
    • Transportation
    • Utilities
  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Columnist Conversations
    • Best Ideas
    • Stock of the Day
  • Street Notes
  • Authors
    • Bruce Kamich
    • Doug Kass
    • Jim "Rev Shark" DePorre
    • Helene Meisler
    • Jonathan Heller
    • - See All -
  • Options
  • RMPIA
  • Switch Product
    • Action Alerts PLUS
    • Quant Ratings
    • Real Money
    • Real Money Pro
    • Retirement
    • Stocks Under $10
    • TheStreet
    • Top Stocks
    • TheStreet Smarts
  1. Home
  2. / Investing
  3. / Stocks

Lithium, Solar and Electric Vehicle Stocks Are Charging Up Momentum Traders

Not all are doing well, but several are bucking the downward market trend.
By BOB BYRNE Sep 19, 2022 | 08:30 AM EDT
Stocks quotes in this article: ENPH, LTHM, ALB, PLL, SQM, NKLA, PTRA, XPEV, TSLA, RIVN

Last week was brutal for index bulls, with the Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Russell 2000 losing between 4.5% and 5.8%. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 broke beneath their near-term support lines, while the Russell 2000 continues to hang on by a thread. From a positioning standpoint, I can't justify pivoting from day trading back to swing trading until price action improves. At a minimum, it would be nice to see more charts that look like stage one bases than stage four bearish continuation breakdowns.

While the major averages and most technology areas look bearish, we can't ignore how resilient the electric vehicle, lithium and solar stocks are.

I'm an advisor to a privately held battery storage solution company that competes with Enphase Energy (ENPH) , so I follow the space closely. With all the news around California brownouts and electric grid failures in Puerto Rico, it's easy to understand why investors are flocking to stocks such as Enphase. But if you don't care to learn about energy storage, just pull up a chart of Enphase and you'll understand why momentum traders are long energy storage.

But investors aren't only picking up shares of solar stocks. Companies in the lithium space are also on investors' radars. Names such as Livent Corp. (LTHM) , Albemarle (ALB) , Piedmont Lithium (PLL) and Sociedad Quimica Chile (SQM) are all doing incredibly well.

Based on what's happening in Argentina, demand for lithium, especially from Chinese buyers, is soaring. I have a client scheduled to drill a production lithium brine well in Argentina in a few weeks. According to the project geologist, Chinese buyers are all over them and anyone else nearby trying to secure off-take agreements or acquire any asset that shows promise.

But again, if you don't care to learn about the fundamentals of lithium, just look at the charts. While it's impossible to know how far the bull market in lithium will extend, buyers don't appear ready to back down.

And then there's the electric vehicle market. While the charts of Nikola (NKLA) , Proterra (PTRA) and XPeng (XPEV) look terrible, buyers aren't giving up on shares of Tesla (TSLA) and Rivian Automotive (RIVN) . I'm not rushing out to buy TSLA because the stock looks like it might be stuck between $300 and $200 for quite some time. But as long as it holds above $200, it's hard to be bearish. And on Rivian, while I don't care for the design of the trucks, I'd be interested in the stock on a high volume break above $40.

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.

At the time of publication, Byrne had no positions in the stocks mentioned.

TAGS: Investing | Stocks | Technical Analysis | Trading | Metals & Mining | Renewable energy | Technology | Real Money | Electric Vehicles

More from Stocks

Will Reaction to Fed Give Market a Needed Washout?

James "Rev Shark" DePorre
Sep 20, 2023 4:16 PM EDT

As Fed 'proceeds carefully,' the market could use a good flush to set it up for a bounce.

Powell Tries Hard to Hide His Dovish Side

Peter Tchir
Sep 20, 2023 3:47 PM EDT

Expect no Fed rate cuts, but for rates to hold higher for longer.

Investors Should Brace for a UAW Win

Bob Lang
Sep 20, 2023 1:15 PM EDT

Here's what to look out for as the auto strike continues.

I Just Can't Give Boeing the All-Clear Yet

Stephen Guilfoyle
Sep 20, 2023 12:17 PM EDT

This defense and aerospace stock looks brighter than its competitors, but it's still a tough jet to fly.

Market's on Hold, Waiting for Jerome Powell to Speak

James "Rev Shark" DePorre
Sep 20, 2023 11:22 AM EDT

The problem with trading in front of the Fed decision is that the reaction will be index-driven, and individual stock picking of little advantage.

Real Money's message boards are strictly for the open exchange of investment ideas among registered users. Any discussions or subjects off that topic or that do not promote this goal will be removed at the discretion of the site's moderators. Abusive, insensitive or threatening comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact us here.

Email

CANCEL
SUBMIT

Email sent

Thank you, your email to has been sent successfully.

DONE

Oops!

We're sorry. There was a problem trying to send your email to .
Please contact customer support to let us know.

DONE

Please Join or Log In to Email Our Authors.

Email Real Money's Wall Street Pros for further analysis and insight

Already a Subscriber? Login

Columnist Conversation

  • 01:41 PM EDT CHRIS VERSACE

    Latest AAP Podcast With Helene Meisler!

    Listen in as the Action Alerts PLUS podcast talks ...
  • 09:07 AM EDT JAMES "REV SHARK" DEPORRE

    This Weekend on Real Money

    The Most Common and Costly Mistake in Investing
  • 10:23 AM EDT PETER TCHIR

    August CPI, Sticky Inflation and the Fed

    CPI, in grand scheme of things, was a non-event......
  • See More

COLUMNIST TWEETS

  • A Twitter List by realmoney
About Privacy Terms of Use

© 1996-2023 TheStreet, Inc., 225 Liberty Street, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10281

Need Help? Contact Customer Service

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data & Company fundamental data provided by FactSet. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions Group.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

FactSet calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.

Compare Brokers

Please Join or Log In to manage and receive alerts.

Follow Real Money's Wall Street Pros to receive real-time investing alerts

Already a Subscriber? Login