As a technician, I like to see what stocks are moving. Uptrends, breakouts, bullish chart patterns are all tools in the toolbox. Utilities stocks, as measured by the Utilities Select Sector SPDR® Fund (NYSE:XLU) sector ETF, are doing a whole lot of nothing this year, so I must look elsewhere.
Look no further than the renewable energy space. Two of the common ETFs are the Invesco Solar ETF (NYSE:TAN) and the First Trust Global Wind Energy ETF (NYSE:FAN). Both charts appear to be in uptrends with some bullish features. I want to take a broader look, though – there’s an ETF for that.
Enter iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (NASDAQ:ICLN). ICLN is basically the world of clean energy, inclusive of solar and wind companies. For a little background on the fund, the clean energy ETF is up more than 20% this year while utility stocks have been stagnant. And let’s not even talk about what has been going on in the energy space – although energy did make dubious news recently for falling to the lowest sector weight in the S&P 500.
Back to ICLN – there are 29 stocks in the portfolio and offers investors a 1.3% yield.. not that the dividend yield matters to us CMTs