Utilities rose 3%, led by Constellation and Vistra, as the S&P 500 set a record close

AXLU, the fund that holds large US utility companies, rose 3% on Tuesday, the most among the 11 sector funds. The S&P 500 closed at a record 7,819.83, above its August 13 close of 7,798.99, which had stood as the high through Monday.

The index traded as high as 7,844.52 before the close. ASPY, the fund that holds the index, rose 0.5% on some of the lightest volume of the past 20 sessions. AXLU traded about twice its usual pace over that stretch.

Plants that already run

Google and Constellation agreed on Tuesday to a 20-year contract for 890 megawatts on the PJM grid, which the companies said serves 67 million people. The power would come from new equipment at 11 reactors Constellation already owns in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. That is an uprate, an upgrade that draws more electricity from a plant already running, not a new plant.

The companies said the purchase agreement will enable more than $4.3 billion of investment by Constellation. A separate 15-year contract covers 2,700 megawatts from plants that are already generating.

"We're committed to meeting our growth responsibly by actively investing in clean, reliable power that brings new capacity to our nation's grids," said Amanda Peterson Corio, Google's global head of energy and power.

Constellation's shares rose 12%. Vistra rose 11% after a separate announcement. On Monday the Energy Department offered Vistra a loan of up to $4.2 billion, still subject to conditions, for uprates at its plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio. That commitment would add 433 megawatts.

Together the two companies are about a tenth of AXLU, and they accounted for about two-fifths of the fund's gain. NextEra Energy, the largest holding, gained 2%, and the rest of the sector rose with them.

Tuesday was the third arrangement in a week to add power at plants that already run, after Monday's loan to Vistra and a September 30 contract with Amazon. That Amazon contract supports a $3 billion expansion adding 190 megawatts at Constellation's Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland. The same day as the Google contract, the Energy Information Administration said wholesale power prices in PJM would rise 41% this year compared with 2025, the largest increase among the regions it tracks.

Alphabet, Google's parent, rose 0.3%. The buyer is valued at $4.2 trillion.

ANLR, VanEck's fund of uranium miners and nuclear operators, rose 5.5%. Constellation is its largest holding.

The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 5.27% from 5.31%. Real estate and staples funds rose 1.1% and 0.9%.

Even after the jump, AXLU was 14% below its high of the past year, and Constellation was 27% below its own. The first new megawatts are expected in 2028.