Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Inch Lower After Market Kicked Off June With Gains

Jefferies Adds Nvidia to ‘Franchise Picks’

1 hr 1 min ago

Jefferies has added Nvidia (NVDA) to its roster of “Franchise Picks,” a group its analysts describe as “our highest-conviction, Buy-rated stocks.”

In Nvidia’s case, the reason for conviction is the chipmaker’s position as the “dominant supplier of AI accelerators” to data centers, facilities that house the advanced computers used to develop and train artificial intelligence models. 

Jefferies came away from Nvidia’s quarterly results impressed with the chipmaker’s revenue projections—which largely mirrored what analysts expected despite a larger-than-expected impact from U.S. export curbs. Nvidia said it expects to take an $8 billion hit this quarter due to lost revenue from sales of H20 chips, which the Trump administration barred from being sold in China. 

The analysts pointed to the “massive step up” in AI commitments from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as a reason for revenue optimism. Last month, Nvidia agreed to supply chips to Saudi AI startup Humain, while the U.S. and UAE reached a deal allowing the Middle Eastern nation to import American-made AI chips. 

Nvidia, grappling with Microsoft (MSFT) for the title of the most valuable company in the world by market capitalization at more than $3.4 trillion, was 3% higher in recent trading.

–Andrew Kessel

Constellation Energy Surges on Deal With Meta to Power AI

2 hr 31 min ago

Constellation Energy (CEG) shares surged in early trading Tuesday after the company said it had struck a 20-year deal to sell nuclear power to Meta Platforms (META), in the latest collaboration between a tech firm and energy provider aimed at powering AI data centers.

Meta will buy the power generation of a Constellation nuclear plant in Clinton, Ill. The financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Starting in June 2027, “the agreement supports the relicensing and continued operations of Constellation’s high-performing Clinton nuclear facility for another two decades after the state’s ratepayer funded zero emission credit (ZEC) program expires,” Constellation said.

“Securing clean, reliable energy is necessary to continue advancing our AI ambitions,” Urvi Parekh, head of global energy at Meta, said of the deal.

Tuesday’s deal between Constellation and Meta is giving nuclear stocks a fresh lift as the Instagram and Facebook owner joins tech rivals from Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google  to Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon’s (AMZN) Amazon Web Services in pouring millions of dollars to boost their nuclear power access for AI. This deal builds on earlier efforts by Constellation, which said last year it would be restarting Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear plant to provide electricity for Microsoft’s data centers in a 20-year supply deal.

More recently, executive orders signed by President Donald Trump last month to accelerate the approval of new reactors and strengthen fuel supply chains have also buoyed nuclear power stocks.

Shares in Constellation were up about 5% in recent trading, after jumping as much as 9% in the opening minutes of the session. Other nuclear power providers, including NuScale (SMR), Vistra (VST) and Centrus (LEU), were also posting solid gains this morning.

–Nisha Gopalan

Dollar General Jumps on Strong Results, Raised Outlook

3 hr 17 min ago

Shares of Dollar General (DG) jumped in early trading Tuesday after the discount retailer posted better-than-expected first-quarter results and lifted its full-year outlook.

Dollar General reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.78 on net sales that increased 5% year-over-year to $10.44 billion. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha had projected $1.47 and $10.26 billion, respectively. Same store sales rose by 2.4%, roughly double the 1.22% bump analysts had forecast.

Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said the company is “uniquely well-positioned to serve our customer in a variety of economic environments,” noting that it gained market share growth across merchandise categories and both its core customer base as well as “trade-in customers.”

The retailer lifted its outlook from what it laid out last quarter. The company raised the floor of its full-year EPS forecast by 10 cents to a range of $5.20 to $5.80; increased its net sales growth projection to 3.7% to 4.7% from 3.4% to 4.4%; and sees same-store sales growth of 1.5% to 2.5% compared with the prior 1.2% to 2.2%.

The company said that “uncertainty exists for the remainder of the year regarding the potential impact of tariffs on the business, and particularly on consumer behavior,” and added that it “has plans in place” if tariffs on China and other countries return to their April 2 levels. Dollar General expects it will be able to mitigate most of the cost increases brought on by tariffs, but said “consumer spending could be pressured by tariff-related price increases.”

Dollar General shares were up 14% in early trading Tuesday, leading S&P 500 advancers.

Discount store rival Dollar Tree (DLTR) is scheduled to report its own first-quarter earnings Wednesday morning. UBS analysts said in a recent note that they believe there are “more tailwinds than risks and uncertainties” for dollar stores in the current environment, citing consumers looking to trade down as a key benefit.

–Aaron McDade

Major Stock Index Futures Slightly Lower

4 hr 9 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.2%.

S&P 500 futures were off 0.1%.

Nasdaq 100 futures fell fractionally.