Publicly-traded companies involved with Department of Energy nuclear programs were not exempt from Monday’s stock market nosedive, although most rallied by the close of trading Thursday.
Companies that are big players in both the DOE Office of Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Office of Nuclear Energy posted per-share declines on Monday, based on Internet searches of Wall Street closing-time prices.
A couple of major nuclear power companies, Constellation Energy and Duke Energy, did a little better amid the stock market plunge of late.
BWX Technologies ended Monday’s trading at $92.38/share down roughly 2% from the prior business day and down about 7% from five days earlier on July 31 when it was trading around $98. Thursday it closed at $97.56.
Fluor stock ended the day down almost 2.6% at $46.22 a share and down 3.7% from its share price July 31, when it was trading around $47.90 per share. Thursday’s close: $48.90.
Huntington Ingalls Industries closed the day down about 2.8% at more than $256 a share. It is down nearly 8% from five days earlier when it was trading around $279 a share. Thursday’s close: $256.37.
Jacobs stock ended Monday down about 1.5% to $140.13 a share, Jacobs stock is down 4% from five days earlier when it was trading at between $147 and $148 a share. Thursday it closed at $142.30.
Leidos stock was down 1.9% on Monday, ending at $142.66 a share. It is down nearly 7% over the prior five days, when it was traded above $144 per share. Thursday’s closing price was $144.35.
Parsons stock ended Monday trading up less than half a percent at $89.16 per share and up 14% over five days earlier when it was trading around $77 per share. It ended Thursday at $91.62.
But even at Monday’s depressed prices, the six government contractor stocks are still up substantially from Jan. 1.
Amentum and Bechtel, two of the larger players in the DOE weapons complex, are privately held although that will change by year’s end for Amentum when it merges with the government contracting and cyber branch of Jacobs.
Duke Energy closed Monday trading at just over $111 a share, down 2.5% from the prior business day but up more than 2% since July 31 when it was traded around $109.25. It ended Thursday at $112.38.
Constellation Energy actually ended Monday trading up 1.7% at $169.97 per share, though the stock is down significantly since July 31, when it hit $189 per share. It ended Thursday at $187.03.
According to CNN, Monday marked the worst day for the Dow Jones, down 2.6%, and the S&P 500 index, down 3%, since 2022. The Wall Street Journal attributed the market downturn to a combination of concerns in the tech sector, the disappointing jobs report for July and the Federal Reserve being too slow in reducing interest rates.
