Solar Sector On Fire as Traders Getting More Optimistic

The Guggenheim Solar ETF (NYSE: TAN) is up more than 6.5 percent Thursday afternoon.

Elsewhere in the sector:

• First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) - up 5 percent
• Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ) - up 13 percent
• SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY) - up 6 percent
• SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) - up 6.6 percent
• JinkoSolar (NYSE: JKS) - up 7.4 percent
• Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) - up 9 percent
• Yingli (NYSE: YGE) - up 22 percent
• ReneSola (NYSE: SOL) - up 11 percent
• Hanwha (NASDAQ: HSOL) - up 16 percent
• China Sunergy (NASDAQ: CSUN) - up 12 percent

Investors are responding to a number of factors Thursday morning following the New Years holiday break:

• news Solar World Industries America has applied to US Commerce Department, ITC for anti-dumping, anti-subsidy probes into solar-battery products imported from China, Taiwan;
• a deal between Canadian Solar and TransCanada which will create TransCanada's fourth solar facility;
• the first auction of solar sites in Brazil, totaling around $250 million; and
• a report suggesting polysilicon spot prices are now at a 15-month high.