Two Investments to Add to Your “Green” Portfolio

by Louise Harris, Investment U Research

Green investing can be tricky.

That was evidenced after oil prices dropped last year and alternative energy companies saw their profits fall just as quickly.

Naturally, investor enthusiasm followed, as green ETFs like Claymore/Mac Global Solar Energy Index (NYSE: TAN) and Market Vectors Solar Energy (NYSE: KWT) have tumbled 45% over the past 12 months.

Similarly, the broad alternative energy portfolio PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy (NYSE: PBW), has declined by an average of 13.5% annually for the last three years.

But despite those woes, the alternative energy sector still has a few things going for it…

Popularity: The more scientists talk about climate change and how to prevent greenhouse emissions, the more popular alternative energies become. This is especially true in Europe, ...

Despite a sharply rising US$ all through Far East, Europe and the Comex open…gold managed to stay within five dollars of its Friday closing price in New York. Gold and silver’s prices peaked at 9:00 a.m. in New York…when both had managed to claw their way into positive territory for the day. But once the London fix was in at 10:00 a.m. in New York, the rug got pulled out from under them.

As per usual, either [or both] JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) and HSBC USA (NYSE:HBC) should be considered prime suspects.

click to enlarge

Both the gold [above] and silver [below] charts show where they pulled their bids on three separate occasions during the day, and whatever sellers there were…were forced to sell into a vacuum. It’s the ’same old, same old’.

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I've exchanged comments with Andy over at the always excellent Siberian Light about the possible loan of more than $5.4 billion to bail out its rapidly failing banking sector. The question on everyone's mind is whether or not such a large loan might include access to a military base in this strategically important NATO country, or whether they will get some support in terms of their territorial claims in the Arctic. Or maybe there is no nefarious political imperative, and the media is making a mountain out of a molehill. The Canadians, who have shown some aggressive responses to Russia's arctic shenanigans, tend to view the Iceland loan with a good dose of cynicism. From Brian Milner in the Globe and Mail: For months now, Iceland has been the problem child of the industrialized world. Now this island of 320,000 people in the North Atlantic ...