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Vistra Zero
The Vistra Zero energy storage facility in Moss Landing, California, back in 2021 (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/Getty Images)

Despite DeepSeek, the AI energy trade is alive and well

The S&P 500’s top two stocks are well-known AI energy plays.

Matt Phillips

The emergence of DeepSeek’s R1 — the supposedly cheap, effective Chinese AI model that provoked a crisis of confidence in the AI trade earlier this week and hammered market darlings like Nvidia — didn’t unseat the leadership of the AI-related energy trade.

Through Thursday’s close, two companies closely associated with investor bets on surging demand for nuclear power related to AI data centers — Constellation Energy Energy and Vistra — are the top stocks in the S&P 500 for the first month of 2025.

Interestingly the nuclear-powered AI trade was huge right out of the gate this year, not to mention last year when Vistra and Constellation were the second and 10th biggest gainers in the S&P 500, respectively. But in the post-DeepSeek world, the AI story these companies are telling could come under more intense scrutiny when both management teams report results in the last week of February.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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