U.S. stocks closed higher again Thursday. The Dow Jones industrials finished the day up 0.43%, the S&P 500 closed up 0.26% and the Nasdaq was up 0.19%. All three added at least another 0.2% in Friday’s premarket trading.

What’s boosting solar stocks

Solar energy stocks have had an interesting week. Shares of Enphase Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: ENPH), SolarEdge Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: SEDG) and First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) dropped by as much as 10% between Monday and Wednesday. Then the lights went on.

In this case, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate announcement and hinted rate cuts in 2024 threw the switch. Lower interest rates will be a boon to solar energy stocks that need large amounts of capital to build large solar farms. Analysts’ expectations for the number of rate cuts next year jumped from three on Wednesday to six on Thursday. The first cut is forecast to come in March.

That sent SolarEdge stock to a gain of just over 20% over the past five trading sessions. Enphase closed up more than 12% and First Solar closed up 9.8% for the same five sessions.

For the year to date, however, SolarEdge remains down 66% and Enphase is down nearly 55%. First Solar has posted a gain of 5.7% with two weeks left in 2023. Since posting a 52-week high in mid-May, however, First Solar stock is down about 31.7%.

In a show of confidence, Jefferies initiated coverage on both Enphase and First Solar with a Buy rating and price targets of $121 and $211, respectively. Enphase is trading at $126 in Friday’s premarket and First Solar trades at around $164.

Costco pays special dividend

Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) reported fiscal 2024 first-quarter results late Thursday. Earnings per share and revenue beat the consensus estimates and were sharply better than in the year-ago quarter. Same-store sales, excluding gasoline and foreign exchange rates, rose 3.8%. The company’s e-commerce sales rose 6.3% year over year. (Twelve things to never buy at Costco.)

Shareholders got a holiday gift as well. Costco declared a $15 per share special dividend to be paid in January to shareholders of record on December 28. The company expects to distribute a total of about $6.7 billion through the dividend payment.

Investors are also thinking ahead to a long-expected increase in Costco’s membership fees. Fees contributed just $1.08 billion to the company’s $57.8 billion total quarterly revenue but about two-thirds of net income of $1.59 billion. Costco has not raised its membership fees since 2017. In the past, the company has raised the fees every five or six years.

GM layoffs

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) announced Thursday that it will lay off some 1,300 workers at two Michigan plants early next month. The assembly plant in Orion will see 945 workers fired, and the Lansing Grand River plant will lay off 369 more.

The Orion plant is discontinuing production of the Chevy Bolt EV and being converted to production of electric trucks beginning late in 2025. GM is ending production of its Chevy Camaro, resulting in the layoffs at the Grand River plant. (These are the 15 worst-selling electric vehicles this year.)

The job cuts are related to GM’s October announcement of a year-long delay in the production of electric trucks. GM said it will offer laid-off employees jobs in other company locations.

Rivian gets the call

Shares of Rivian Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: RIVN) rose nearly 14% on Thursday following the announcement that the company has done a deal with AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T). Rivian will begin supplying its commercial vans and R1 vehicles to AT&T early next year. AT&T said this is a “pilot program aimed at cutting transport emissions” to meet the company’s commitment to become carbon neutral by 2035.

Rivian did not say how many vehicles it would provide to AT&T. The company still plans to fulfill an order for 100,000 delivery vans for Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).

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