Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and the broader economy.
Quanta Services is drawing attention after reporting a backlog approaching fifty billion dollars, up nearly thirty-eight percent, driven by surging demand for AI data center buildout and grid modernization projects. That kind of pipeline is a direct reflection of how capital is chasing electrification infrastructure right now, and Quanta is positioned squarely in that current.
Staying on the data center theme, a retired Air Force lieutenant general is making the national security case for accelerating compute infrastructure, arguing in a Washington Post op-ed that a shortage of processing power would be, in his words, catastrophic. The argument reframes the public backlash against data centers and power plants as a strategic liability, not just a local zoning fight. When generals start talking about servers the way they talk about aircraft carriers, Wall Street listens.
Meanwhile, Wave Life Sciences is fielding uncomfortable questions after a five-point-five million dollar share sale by Exome followed a difficult first quarter. Exome offloaded over four hundred twenty-one thousand shares at quarterly average prices, and the timing is drawing scrutiny. Insider exits after a rough earnings print rarely go unnoticed, and this one is no exception.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
