Nuke stocks jump on Three Mile Island deal
Constellation plans to restart plant on the site of worst-ever US nuclear disaster, which closed for commercial reasons in 2019.
Nuke stocks are up after Constellation Energy announced plans to restart its shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania — the site of the worst-ever US nuclear power disaster — as part of a 20-year deal to supply carbon-free power to Microsoft’s growing datacenter business.
Rising expectations about the growing demand for energy to needed for artificial intelligence have supercharged utility stocks this year.
The normally sleepy S&P 500 utilities sector, typically considered a defensive area of the stock market to hide out from economic uncertainty, is up roughly 24% in 2024, posting a bigger gain than the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index, for example.
On Friday, power providers jumped amid another otherwise soft day for stocks. Constellation had the biggest gain in the S&P 500 in early trading. Vistra Corp., which owns nuclear power assets and has talked up their potential AI linkages, was in second place. Fellow nuclear power providers NRG and Exelon also posted solid gains.
And if you’re looking further upstream, there are huge advances, as well. The Global X Uranium ETF which holds companies that produce the raw materials that facilitate nuclear fission, is soaring, as is the Sprott Junior Uranium Miners ETF. Cameco Corp, the Canada-based uranium miner that’s the largest by market cap, was up more than 9% on Friday morning.
