XLU Jun 2026 63.000 call
- Yahoo Finance Video
Microsoft goes nuclear to power AI data centers: Expert
Nuclear energy has been a hot topic in investors' minds after Microsoft (MSFT) and Constellation Energy (CEG) announced an agreement to restore a dormant nuclear power plant to power the tech company’s AI and cloud data centers. Radiant Energy Group founder and managing director Mark Nelson joins Josh Lipton and Julie Hyman to explain how nuclear energy could power the artificial intelligence era. Microsoft wants to restore the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania, known for one of the largest nuclear disasters in the US when one of the plant's two reactors melted down in 1979. A nuclear engineer himself, Nelson explains that the plant’s other reactor “kept going for 40 years. The only reason it closed in 2019 is because fossil fuels were really cheap.” He says there’s a renewed interest in nuclear energy today because “we're running out of other energy sources… we're running out of power, and we're realizing that if we're going to have everybody buy electric vehicles, we have to be able to charge it from power plants that run all the time.” Nuclear power plants could help meet the energy-intensive needs of training and running AI, which has brought the utilities sector into focus. Nelson says building new nuclear plants and restoring existing ones could help. “The very best American design for a nuclear plant is being built in China over and over again for about four years or so per reactor and about $3 billion. I don't think we're going to meet China's prices for building our reactors, but we could probably do a lot better building our reactors if we do it in series with the same design, the same plant layout, and we do it over and over," the expert tells Yahoo Finance. “Fortunately, we've got designs that are licensed and ready to go today at existing nuclear plants that already serve tens of millions of customers. Aand those are the plants that are being approached by the data centers. So I think to get over this hump, we have to accept that we've got outstanding equipment ready to install. We've just forgotten how to do it and we need to do it the same way every time.” For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination. This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.
- Yahoo Finance Video
Utility stock plays to invest around AI, lower interest rates
Hennion & Walsh CIO Kevin Mahn sits down in-studio with Josh Lipton and Josh Schafer on Market Domination ahead of Wednesday’s expected interest rate cut, discussing why the utilities sector (XLU) stands out in a changing rate environment. Utilities are “generally known for paying attractive dividend yields" and as interest rates come down, “these high dividend paying stocks are going to look a lot more attractive,” Mahn says. The sector has “also historically have a very defensive nature" which could help weather near-term volatility brought on by not only the 2024 presidential election and the "Fed guessing game." Mahn tells Yahoo Finance that the utility sector is "a backdoor play into the AI revolution" due to the intense power demands of data centers. He highlights Southern Company (SO), Sempra Energy (SRE), and NiSource (NI) as stocks within the sector that could benefit. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination. This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.
- Yahoo Finance Video
The risks of rate cuts, TikTok fights ban bill: Asking for a Trend
On today's episode of Asking for a Trend, Host Josh Lipton breaks down some of the top stories and trends from the trading day. Investors are all but certain the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its September meeting on Wednesday. But the question of by how much — 25 or 50 basis points — has been hotly debated. Wall Street Journal Chief Economics Commentator and Deputy Economics Editor Greg Ip lays out the case for a half-point cut, explaining, "It all starts out by looking at where rates are now," Ip says, noting that the current target rate of 5.25%-5.50% is the highest in 20 years. Rates were initially pushed that high because of sticky, elevated inflation. But in recent months, inflation has cooled considerably. The major indexes (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) closed Monday mixed after disappointing iPhone 16 pre-order numbers caused Apple (AAPL) to slip and pull the Nasdaq down along with it. Yahoo Finance senior reporter Jared Blikre analyzes the day’s top market movements, including the surge in cyclical sectors such as utilities (XLU), the weight of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision later this week, and September's seasonality trends. TikTok spent Monday in court in the first day of its trial arguing against the US bill that could see the popular social media app banned in the United States if parent company ByteDance doesn't sell the platform to a non-Chinese entity. Axios Business Editor Dan Primack explains that the judge in the case was "fairly skeptical of TikTok's arguments," adding, "But what's important to note is the President of the United States does not have to ban it if there's not a divestiture, it gives the president the option to ban it. You've already got Donald Trump saying he would not ban TikTok." Intel (INTC) and Amazon (AMZN) Web Services announced a co-investment in custom chip designs in a multibillion, multi-year strategic collaboration. Creative Strategies CEO and principal analyst Ben Baron explains that Intel has won a large customer in AWS, saying, "there's positive momentum there in terms of getting foundry wins." He believes that Intel is ultimately setting the stage to split into two companies: Intel and an Intel foundry. He believes that having an Intel Foundry subsidiary is "essentially as close as you can get to putting the right kind of walls and guardrails around Intel Foundry so that other customers can come in and feel comfortable knowing that they'll have capacity wafer allocation." This post was written by Melanie Riehl
