S&P 500 component Constellation Energy is Friday's IBD Stock Of The Day, with the nuclear giant moving higher as President Donald Trump signed executive orders Friday to ease regulatory requirements on approvals for new nuclear reactors and enhance fuel supply chains. CEG stock flirted with a buy point.
Trump signed executive orders Friday afternoon to support the nuclear energy sector and put in place a "total and complete reform" of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC. The executive orders also look to speed up the deployment of new nuclear power reactors in the U.S.
Under Trump's executive orders, the NRC will have to decide on nuclear reactor licenses within 18 months.
The executive orders from the Trump White House also create a regulatory framework for the Departments of Energy and Defense to build nuclear reactors on federal land. White House officials told reports Friday that this "allows for safe and reliable nuclear energy to power and operate critical defense facilities and AI data centers." The Trump executive orders also target increased U.S. uranium mining and looks to expand domestic uranium enrichment capacity.
Constellation, Other Nuclear Stocks Soar
Nuclear-related stocks broadly soared at the opening bell for Friday's stock market action following a Reuters report late Thursday that the Trump executive orders would be signed. Early Friday, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright confirmed that Trump would sign the executive orders.
The executive orders come as Trump announced earlier this year that Sam Altman's OpenAI, along with SoftBank and Oracle, are planning a joint venture called Stargate. The plan is to build data centers and other AI infrastructure in the U.S., with investments of up to $500 billion.
Investors can also keep tabs on the IBD Leaderboard watchlist, the IBD 50 list of top growth stocks and IBD SwingTrader along with the IBD Sector Leaders list.
S&P 500 Nuclear Stocks Stick By 2025 Outlook
Earlier in May, Constellation Energy underperformed first-quarter profit expectations but kept its 2025 guidance steady. Meanwhile, S&P 500 nuclear utilities play Vistra reported a surprise first-quarter loss, but similar to Constellation, it also kept its 2025 guidance steady.
Constellation Energy saw Q1 EPS grow nearly 18% to $2.14 with sales increasing 10% to $6.79 billion.
Meanwhile, the Baltimore-based company also stuck to its initial 2025 guidance from Jan. 10 of adjusted earnings between $8.90-$9.60 per share, keeping its expectations steady since announcing the acquisition of Calpine, a privately owned natural gas and geothermal power generator, for $26.6 billion.
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Chief Executive Joe Dominguez told analysts earlier in May that Constellation has "made tremendous progress on new power agreements that we expect to announce soon."
"As Presidents Trump and Biden repeatedly have emphasized, it is vital for our national security and for our economy that America lead the AI race, and I am so proud that Constellation is playing such an important role." he said.
The link to the stock market's AI boom meant nuclear energy stocks spent much of 2024 running at the top of the S&P 500. CEG, VST and other new nuclear-focused companies rode the wave of excitement as Big Tech scrambled to find the electricity needed to power its artificial intelligence ambitions.
Constellation Energy shares shot up 91% during last year's stock market trade while Vistra stock rocketed 258%, placing both among the top S&P 500 stocks and the best 100 stocks of 2024.
The company started 2025 by announcing a 10-year, $840 million contract with the U.S. General Services Administration to supply power to facilities of more than 13 government agencies.
Constellation Energy Stock Performance
CEG rose 2% to 297.49 on Friday, just above a 296.17 handle buy point from a very deep base on the Trump nuclear news, according to MarketSurge chart analysis. The stock hit 302.60 intraday.
The S&P 500 stock is up around 32% this year, but is down 16% from its all-time high of 352 from Jan. 23. Meanwhile, the nuclear energy stock bottomed at 161.35 on April 7, but has moved 83% higher since then, regaining its 200-day and 50-day moving averages.
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Also on Friday, uranium miner Centrus Energy vaulted 20%, adding to a 34% advance in May.
On May 8, Centrus Energy soared more than 20% after reporting better-than-expected first quarter profit and sales amid plans to capitalize on billions of federal dollars for domestic nuclear fuel production.
In 2023, The Department of Energy was given $3.4 billion to shore up domestic enriched uranium supply. This came amid concern around U.S. reliance on Russian enriched uranium after the invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. has relied on Russia for about 25% of fuel for its nuclear reactors.
Meanwhile, Canadian uranium refiner Cameco jumped 11% Friday. Cathie Wood and her Ark Invest funds repeatedly purchased Cameco shares in early 2025.
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Cameco is one of the world's largest providers of uranium. Utilities around the globe rely on the company to provide nuclear fuel. The company also has direct exposure to SMR nuclear technology through its shared ownership of Westinghouse.
Uranium mining and exploration plays Uranium Energy stock and Energy Fuels stock soared 24.2% and 19.6%, respectively, in Friday's stock market.
Average True Range Within Guidelines
Constellation Energy stock has a 21-day average true range of 4.44%. The ATR metric is available on IBD's MarketSurge charting tool that gauges the characteristic breadth of a stock's behavior. Stocks that tend to make large jumps or dives in daily action, the kind that can trigger sell rules and shake investors out of a stock, have a high ATR. Stocks that tend to make more incremental moves have lower ATRs.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are now in a power trend. Investors can buy stocks with ATRs up to 8%, though they should be wary of being too concentrated in high-octane names.
Constellation Energy stock has an 87 Composite Rating out of a best-possible 99. CEG also has an 88 Relative Strength Rating. The S&P 500 nuclear stock has a 41 EPS Rating.
Please follow Kit Norton on X @KitNorton for more coverage.
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