MW Solar stocks' losses are nuclear's gain, as Elon Musk takes swipe at budget bill

By Tomi Kilgore

NRG Energy's stock leads S&P 500 gainers for this year as draft bill boosts U.S. nuclear power, while EnPhase's stock is among the biggest losers

Shares of most solar-power companies and those in the nuclear-power business were headed in opposite directions on Monday, as the Senate's final version of its tax and spending bill was worse than the previous one for the solar and wind industries.

Elon Musk, chief executive of electric-vehicle giant Tesla Inc. $(TSLA)$, who had a very public fallout with President Donald Trump given his disdain for the proposed budget bill, was quick to take a swipe at the Senate's version. He wrote in a social-media post that it would cost millions of Americans their jobs and cause "immense" strategic harm.

The Senate's version of the bill says tax credits for solar and wind projects will only be provided if they are completed by 2027, rather than started by then. It also gives incentives for the generation of nuclear power.

"Utterly insane and destructive," Musk wrote. "It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future."

Tesla investors were feeling some of Musk's pain, as the stock declined 0.9% in premarket trading, putting it in danger of a fifth straight loss. That would be the longest losing streak since the five-day stretch that ended Feb. 26.

Meanwhile, shares of Texas-based NRG Energy Inc. $(NRG)$, which has its hands in the nuclear-energy business, rose 1.1% in premarket toward a third straight record high.

The stock is by far the S&P 500 index's SPX best performer this year with an 80.3% gain through Friday.

In second is software giant Palantir Technologies Inc.'s stock (PLTR), which also has its hand in nuclear power, after the company announced last week a product partnership with the Nuclear Company to develop artificial intelligence-driven software to build nuclear reactors.

Among others in the nuclear business, Constellation Energy Corp. shares $(CEG.UK)$ rose 0.6% in the premarket, and have soared 43.1% in 2025, while shares of Oklo Inc. $(OKLO)$ climbed 3.3% and NuScale Power Corp.'s stock $(SMR.AU)$ advanced 3.4%.

"Just in case there was any doubt surrounding the extent of bipartisan support for nuclear power as the generation source to power technologies of the future, the Senate revisions to the administration's Big Beautiful Bill provided yet another positive proof point," wrote Evercore ISI analyst Nicholas Amicucci in a note to clients.

However, a number of solar stocks were headed in the opposite direction.

As Oppenheimer's Colin Rusch put it, the big concern for the industry is the new end-of-2027 deadline for completing solar projects.

"Given construction timelines for many power projects, we believe this provision would lead to a slowing of utility-scale solar project deployment by early 2026 as developers manage construction risk and renegotiate [power purchase agreement] prices," Rusch wrote.

Solar- and wind-energy producer NextEra Energy Inc. shares $(NEE)$ were falling 5.7% to pace the S&P 500's premarket decliners.

And Enphase Energy Inc.'s stock (ENPH) slid 2.2% ahead of the open. Through Friday, it had tumbled 40.5% in 2025 to make it the S&P 500's second-worst performer this year. Nextracker Inc. shares $(NXT)$ slumped 11%.

Shares of First Solar Inc. $(FSLR)$ were a bit of an outlier, as they charged up 8.2% in Monday's premarket. On the bright side, Baird analyst Ben Kallo said one of the biggest surprises of the Senate's version of the BBB is an excise tax on projects using solar and wind components from China, which is good for domestic producers such as First Solar.

That's also helping the stock of wind-power company GE Vernova Inc. $(GEV.AU)$, which rose 1.6%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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June 30, 2025 08:55 ET (12:55 GMT)

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