2 days ago
Simmering United States-China trade tensions send nuclear stocks soaring, Global X ETFs' Scott Helfstein reveals
Australian uranium miners have been on a tear since the calamity of United States President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' spooked investors and sent stocks around the globe plummeting.
Uranium mining is a cyclical industry, one which fluctuates along with the business cycle, and was devastated by the turmoil from President Trump's trade war before strongly rebounding.
Global X ETFs' head of thematic solutions Scott Helfstein told Sky News' Business Now the uranium sector's rebound was a sign of strength in the the wider economy.
'What we're actually seeing in the last few weeks, since we have moved past peak US-China tensions, we're seeing cyclical areas like copper miners, uranium miners, industrials start to rally and come back,' he said.
'That is a sign of good secular growth or expectations for good secular growth.'
He noted while there was a 'sense of negative sentiment' among investors, underlying economic factors were stable.
'The hard economic and fundamentals from a corporate and a GDP (gross domestic product) perspective have remained really strong,' Mr Helfstein said.
Uranium miner Paladin Energy has surged more than 50 per cent since the early April wipeout from "Liberation Day".
Boss Energy has added more than 80 per cent, Deep Yellow has jumped more than 60 per cent and Bannerman Energy has soared about 45 per cent.
Similarly, the world's largest publicly traded uranium miner and Swedish powerhouse Cameco Corp is up more than 70 per cent since early April.
The climb comes as the ASX 200 has experienced wild turbulence since the beginning of the year.
China and the US placed massive tariffs on one another, but agreed last month to reduce these to undergo trade negotiations.
US and Chinese officials said on Tuesday they had agreed on a framework to get their trade truce back on track and remove China's export restrictions on rare earths, but offered little sign of a durable resolution to longstanding trade tensions.
The ASX 200 hit a peak in mid-February before slowly dropping after President Trump began revealing his trade policies - including tariffs on aluminium, steel and automotive parts.
The index plummeted in early April after the sweeping 'Liberation Day' tariffs were slapped on most nations around the world.
President Trump temporarily pausing these levies and a boost of investor confidence has led to a gradual rise of the ASX 200.
