Mark Henwood

How epic has this correction been? The answer is worse than the 1987 programmatic crash (S&P -32%) but not as bad, to-date, as the 1973 oil crisis (S&P -48%) or the dot-com bubble (S&P -49%). For an excellent graphic of these events and the current housing bubble (S&P -45%) visit CalculatedRisk.com. In this graph each of the indices starts at the same point on the top of the vertical axis, which represents the percentage amount of drop in index value. With the horizontal axis representing time, it can be seen that while the percentage drop of the S&P 500 is not quite as severe as in the case of the corrections of '73 or '00, those corrections took 2-3 years to hit bottom. We are less than...

On Thursday 10-16-08 I attended the User Group meeting of Plexos Solutions LLC, a boutique firm providing software and consulting to the rapidly changing California electric market. One of the presentations covered issues surrounding integration of renewable energy resources into the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). This is important to sustainable energy investors because virtually all the growth in generating capacity is forecast to come from renewable resources. While the fundamentals of this market have been overwhelmed by broader market conditions this last month, over time the fundamentals provide the tailwind that will lift stocks. And the growth expectations for renewables are very high in the California market. Over the...

We are pleased to announce a new feature on EcoWorld's Investment page, the proprietary stock indices compiled by Mark Henwood, Editor of the financial blog Camino Energy. Since January 2006, Henwood has compiled data on pure play publically traded renewable energy companies, and now manages five perpetually updated indices - Renewable Electricity, Solar, Biofuel, LED Lighting, and Fuel Cells. Featured below is the latest of Henwood's weekly commentaries - we expect to bring you much more from this unique and very useful resource: Solar and LED-Lighting rise sharply, BioFuel Energy highlights risk and drags Biofuels down (week ending 8/15). Emerging markets, EAFA, and commodities (DJP) fell while the US market S&P...