Oil Stocks Rise as Global Tensions Escalate

Major U.S. equities indexes lost ground ahead of Friday morning’s release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ September jobs report.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% on Thursday, while the Dow was down 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the session with a minimal decline of less than 0.1%.

Shares of beer, wine, and spirits maker Constellation Brands (STZ) dropped 4.7%, losing the most of any stock in the S&P 500 on the day after the company released mixed results for its fiscal second quarter. The company behind the Corona and Modelo brands reported strong beer sales during the period but pointed to macroeconomic challenges affecting the alcoholic beverage industry.

Bio-Techne (TECH) shares sank 4.4% on Thursday. In its most recent quarterly report, released in August, the provider of reagents and other health care diagnostics products missed earnings per share (EPS) expectations. A year-over-year jump in selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs weighed on results. According to analysts, Bio-Techne also faces stiff competition in an industry that requires rapid innovation.

Telsa (TSLA) shares lost 3.4% after the carmaker recalled around 27,000 of its Cybertrucks because of an issue with the vehicles’ rearview camera. When the Cybertruck is put in reverse, the rear-facing image can appear blank for up to eight seconds, according to a filing from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This marks the fifth recall for the Cybertruck since its release last year.

Shares of MarketAxess Holdings (MKTX), which operates an electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, notched Thursday’s top performance in the S&P 500, popping 7.5% higher after the company reported record levels of trading volume across its platforms in September. The company highlighted strong year-over-year volume growth in U.S. high-grade, emerging markets, Eurobonds, and municipals.

Crude oil futures prices jumped more than 5% to reach their highest level since August amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. The latest uptick in oil prices helped boost numerous stocks in the energy sector. Shares of refiner Valero Energy (VLO) jumped 6.2%.

Shares of Texas-based energy generator Vistra Corp. (VST) surged 5.7% to an all-time closing high after Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), said the tech giant is exploring ways to power its artificial intelligence (AI) data centers using nuclear energy. Analysts expressed optimism that last month’s deal between Microsoft (MSFT) and Constellation Energy (CEG) to restart the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania could pave the way for additional agreements between big tech firms and nuclear generators. On Thursday, RBC Capital Markets raised its price target on Vistra shares to $141 from $105.

Constellation Energy shares were up 4.5% on Thursday following reports that the company aims to secure a $1.6 billion federal loan guarantee to help fund the Three Mile Island project. According to The Washington Post, Constellation submitted a request for the government-backed loan to the Department of Energy in May, and after passing an initial review, the application is now in a negotiation stage.