Uranium stock boom fades amid Ukraine ceasefire talks - Bloomberg
Kyiv • UNN
Uranium stocks are falling due to trade tensions between the US and Canada, as well as ceasefire talks in Ukraine. This has led to lower uranium prices.
Bloomberg reports that once-thriving uranium stocks are heading for a decline starting in 2025, UNN writes.
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Escalating trade tensions between the US and Canada, one of the world's major nuclear fuel producers, play an important role. There have also been talks recently about a ceasefire in Russia's war against Ukraine, "raising the prospect of easing sanctions on Russian production of radioactive metal and the potential for increased supply," the publication writes.
The price of uranium is now down more than a third since the start of 2024 and is down about 11% this year alone. The widely tracked $2.9 billion Global X Uranium ETF, which mainly tracks mining stocks, is down about 5% in 2025. Meanwhile, Saskatchewan-based Cameco Corp., North America's largest uranium mining company, is down 11% after five years of growth.
Just over a year ago, uranium was thriving after about a decade of stagnation. More and more countries have moved to reopen nuclear reactors, and demand for electricity was expected to increase sharply with the growth of artificial intelligence and data centers. Russia's invasion in early 2022 of a neighboring country only reduced supplies.
But for several weeks now, the headwind has been increasing. Investors are reluctant to bet that the stability seen in stocks in recent days will last until they have a clearer picture of what will happen in Ukraine. Meanwhile, questions surrounding US President Donald Trump's tariff proposals have caused businesses to postpone signing long-term agreements to purchase the metal, says John Ciampaglia of Sprott Asset Management.
On Monday, shares of uranium companies rose as part of a broad stock market rally on signs that US pohoes would be more targeted than expected, which boosted sentiment around the economic outlook, at least for a short time.
There has also been other favorable news recently. Uranium stocks and commodity prices rose last week when the world's largest mining company, Kazakhstan's NAC Kazatomprom, said it was experiencing supply chain problems that made it difficult to access the sulfuric acid needed to produce nuclear fuel.
However, this development proved insufficient to dispel all the doubts that had been accumulating.
Another factor holding back the growth of uranium producer stocks recently has been China, where companies have developed approaches to training AI models that may require less energy, which may weaken the drive to increase nuclear power volumes. In January, the emergence of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek triggered a sell-off in energy company stocks. Now there is news that Jack Ma's Ant Group has developed its own AI model using Chinese-made chips, which will reduce costs.
"More DeepSeek will appear," said Brooke Thackeray, research analyst at Global X, an ETF unit of Mirae Asset Financial Group. Thackeray said the proposal "changed the backdrop" for expected electricity demand.
Put it all together, and "everyone is in waiting mode," said Chiampaglia of Sprott.
