💰 As trade war temporarily eases, U.S. stocks surged throughout the week.
💹 $Nexgen Energy Ltd.(NXE)$/$NuScale Power(SMR)$/$Constellation Energy Corp(CEG)$: Highlighting the significant growth potential within the nuclear energy industry.
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|Market recap
Last week, major indices experienced substantial gains, with $S&P 500(.SPX)$ rising 4.6% and $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ climbing 6.7%, although the gains narrowed on Friday.
Overall, $NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index(HXC)$ increased by 7.3%, outperforming the market. On Friday, $Canadian Solar(CSIQ)$ surged by 20% and $Niu Technologies(NIU)$ by 10%, leading the rally in Chinese assets.
Megacaps
The U.S. is deregulating autonomous vehicle technology, leading to a significant increase in $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$ 's stock by 9.8%, with other automotive stocks also rising— $Rivian Automotive, Inc.(RIVN)$ up 4.4% and $Lucid Group Inc(LCID)$ up 2%. Last week, the market “selectively ignored” Tesla’s disappointing first-quarter results, and Musk's return to daily management sparked a rally in the stock price. Market attention is shifting from traditional EV business to emerging growth areas, as Musk delivered positive news right away. Trump is promoting the simplification of deploying autonomous vehicles on U.S. roads and easing collision reporting requirements—this marks the most significant change in federal regulations for autonomous vehicles that Musk has advocated.
On Friday, semiconductor stocks surged, with $NVIDIA(NVDA)$ rising by 4.3%, placing it second among the Magnificent 7, while $Broadcom(AVGO)$ rose by 2.2%, $Astera Labs, Inc.(ALAB)$ by 2.4%, and $Marvell Technology(MRVL)$ by 2.8%. Trade tensions persist, yet global demand for NVIDIA GPUs remains strong due to the substantial market need for inference chips driven by large language models (LLMs).
MAGA
On Friday, $BigBear.ai Holdings(BBAI)$ jumped 11%, re-entering the public spotlight. The company announced a significant agreement with Austal USA to utilize its AI-driven manufacturing platform, Shipyard AI, to enhance shipyard efficiency. Austal USA specializes in building high-speed transport vessels and military ships. Notably, BBAI has surged over 23% this month.
Top movers
Solar: The U.S. has blocked Chinese solar companies from exporting via Southeast Asia, leading to a strong continuation in the solar panel sector on Friday, with $Canadian Solar(CSIQ)$ up 20%, $SolarEdge(SEDG)$ up 7.2%, and $First Solar(FSLR)$ up 4%.
Crypto: As the trade war temporarily eases, gold prices have experienced high volatility, while tech stocks have regained momentum, with the market showing a willingness to bet on higher-risk assets, benefiting mining stocks such as $Strategy(MSTR)$ up 5%, $Hut 8 Mining Corp(HUT)$ up 4%, and $Bit Digital, Inc.(BTBT)$ up 2.5%.
Fintech: With recession fears prevalent, retail consumers are increasing purchases of major electronics ahead of anticipated price hikes, providing a temporary boost to retail finance stocks like $SoFi Technologies Inc.(SOFI)$ up 4.6%, $Upstart Holdings, Inc.(UPST)$ up 4.2%, and $Dave Inc(DAVE)$ up 3.3%.
|First 100 Days
April 29 marks the 100th day since Trump’s return to the White House. Although his ambitious tariff goals have not met expectations, he remains one of the most influential figures in shaping market trends. If he were to remain silent next week and the Federal Reserve did not release new information, the earnings season would become the central theme.
On Wednesday, there are high hopes for $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$ and $Microsoft(MSFT)$ to deliver surprises. Recently, both stocks have performed relatively flat, but any exceeding indicators or guidance during earnings calls could increase the likelihood of price increases. First, both companies are less affected by recession factors, maintaining stability in the short term, which forms a basis for pricing. Second, the negative impacts from META's antitrust lawsuits are gradually dissipating, while MSFT’s AI cloud business shows little variation; currently, the probability of bad news for both companies seems low, with a higher likelihood of marginal improvements.
In contrast, $Amazon.com(AMZN)$ and $Apple(AAPL)$ face business bottlenecks, with stock price movements expected to be subdued after their forecasts on Thursday. Over the past week, AMZN experienced the largest gains, while AAPL saw the smallest, with both stocks reverting to levels seen in mid-2024. As two of the stocks most affected by tariffs, they are each employing strategies to offset tariff uncertainties: AMZN's growth highlight is its cloud business AWS, while AAPL plans to move its supply chain to India for a complete industry transition. This information has already been largely priced in; given the delays with Siri and underperformance of AI shopping assistants, both companies’ current AI initiatives do not seem satisfactory, leading to subdued performance post-earnings.
|Nuclear energy: Bold ideas for quick wins
The demand for energy driven by AI data centers is creating investment opportunities within the nuclear energy industry. To address the power supply shortages of data centers, tech giants are initiating collaborative energy supply models involving "nuclear power plants + data centers." Companies like Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and Amazon are partnering with nuclear firms, and small modular reactors (SMRs) are becoming increasingly popular.
The nuclear energy industry is highly capital and technology-intensive, encompassing all aspects from raw material supply to end-use applications.
NXE
Upstream: Uranium mining, natural uranium processing, and production of nuclear fuel components. Uranium is a critical raw material for nuclear power generation, and market demand for uranium remains strong. In January this year, uranium prices exceeded $100 per pound, reaching nearly a 15-year high. Although there has been a recent pullback, prices remain elevated historically. As one of the world's leading uranium producers, Canadian uranium companies have seen their stock performance rise alongside uranium prices.
$Nexgen Energy Ltd.(NXE)$ , an exploration and development stage company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, evaluation, and development of uranium properties in Canada. Its principal asset is the Rook I project, which consists of 32 contiguous mineral claims covering an area of 35,065 hectares located in the southwestern Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan.
SMR
Midstream: Manufacturing of nuclear power equipment, technology research and development, and production of nuclear fusion-related equipment.
$NuScale Power(SMR)$ is an American nuclear energy company primarily focused on developing and promoting small, flexible, and safer nuclear power generation solutions. Its core product is the NuScale modular reactor technology, designed to significantly simplify the scale and complexity of traditional large nuclear power plants while offering enhanced safety and cost-efficiency. NuScale's success is attributed to strong government support, international partnerships, and a mature technology development model.
CEG
Downstream: Design, construction, and operation of nuclear power plants, as well as applications of nuclear technology.
$Constellation Energy Corp(CEG)$ is the largest nuclear power producer in the U.S., and with AI trends driving surging power demand, its prominence remains high. Nuclear power offers reliability and clean energy attributes, making it highly compatible with AI data centers.
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