Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk.
The nuclear energy story is back in a serious way. Electricity demand, which grew just ten percent over the past two decades, is now projected to surge sixty percent over the next twenty years, driven largely by data centers and electrification. That structural tailwind is pulling real capital into uranium miners, reactor operators, and fuel processors.
Shifting to crypto, Cathie Wood's ARK funds are leaning into the sell-off, buying Coinbase and Circle stock ahead of a pivotal congressional vote on the Clarity Act. The legislation would establish the first formal regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States, and Wood is essentially betting that clarity, even imperfect clarity, is a net positive for the sector's largest players.
And over in the auto sector, the numbers out of China are brutal. Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Porsche all posted quarterly sales declines of between thirty and forty-one percent compared with a year ago. Domestic Chinese brands are taking share aggressively, and there is no near-term recovery story that holds up against those figures.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
