Nuclear Stocks Rebound 13% to 19% in Friday Morning Trading After Election Selloff, Oklo Still Down 68% for 2026

A day after the Democratic midterm sweep sent the Nasdaq into correction territory, the nuclear developers that bet on AI power demand bounced. Oklo rose between 16% and 19% in Friday morning trading, Nov. 6. U.S. markets are closed today, Saturday, Nov. 7, so those are the latest moves on record.

Oklo traded at $22.93 at one point, up 19%. It is still down 68% year to date. NuScale Power rose 13% to 15%, to about $5.04. Nano Nuclear Energy gained 9% to $10.52. Bloom Energy rose 10% with no company news, after sinking 16% on Thursday.

What the quarterly reports showed

Oklo posted a third-quarter loss of $0.22 a share, narrower than analysts expected. Its operating loss was about $71 million, a touch below the second quarter's $73.2 million. Interest income on its cash held the net loss to $41.7 million.

Cash stood at $3.13 billion at Sept. 30, up from $3.0 billion at the end of June. Oklo raised $2.3 billion through at-the-market stock sales in the first three quarters of 2026.

CEO Jacob DeWitte told analysts on the Nov. 6 call: "We're building reactors, we've built a reactor, we have fuel secured, we've operated a reactor, and we have the capital to keep going."

Construction at the Aurora site in Idaho has moved into structural work, and the Department of Energy has approved the project's preliminary safety analysis. Management targets 2028 to 2029 for the plant to come online. A new agreement with U.S. Forged Rings reserves capacity for large components equal to 27 Aurora modules from 2030 through 2035.

NuScale, which reported Thursday, Nov. 5, lost $0.11 a share against the $0.26 analysts expected. Quarterly revenue was $281,000. CEO John Hopkins pointed to a new fabrication deal with Doosan Enerbility: "We are no longer simply designing and planning. We are manufacturing."

The missing contracts

Neither company has the binding customer deal the bull case needs. Oklo is waiting on a power contract with Meta, which management said isn't currently binding to build the reactor. NuScale is waiting on a deal between its partner ENTRA1 and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Oklo has not given a price for its first Aurora plant. Analysts expect about $6.3 billion in cash burn from 2026 through 2030, according to TIKR. That is roughly twice the cash Oklo holds, so more stock sales look likely.

Wedbush analyst Seth Basham rates NuScale "Underperform" with a $5 price target. He cites the lack of a financed, binding order for its reactor modules after nearly two decades, and the 2023 cancellation of the Carbon Free Power Project, which Wedbush calls NuScale's only meaningful customer opportunity. Wedbush rates Oklo and Nano Nuclear "Outperform," with targets of $36 and $18.

Rebound or re-rating?

The analysts writing about the move mostly read it as a bounce, not a verdict on the companies. TIKR's analyst credited "most of today's jump to the group's rebound." He noted that Bloom, with revenue up 138% last quarter and its 2026 outlook raised for the third time this year, fell 16% on the election alone. "The selling was about policy," he wrote.

24/7 Wall St. likewise called much of Oklo's jump an unwind of election-driven selling. It also pointed to the October jobs report, released Nov. 6, which showed 165,000 jobs added and unemployment at 4.1%.

The policy overhang

The policy backdrop that drove Thursday's drop has not changed. Goldman Sachs estimates that, come January, states controlled by Democrats who support expanding or extending AI construction moratoriums will hold 45% of America's planned data center capacity. A quarter of the planned buildout is in Texas alone.

Democrats gained governorships in Nevada, Georgia, Ohio and Texas, where candidates campaigned on tighter data center rules. Proposals from the governors-elect include ending tax breaks, tightening climate and electricity restrictions, and letting local governments impose their own moratoriums.

CNN Business argues the shift could be healthy. Its analysis says a slowdown "could rein in unfettered growth that has contributed to rebounding inflation" and widespread public antipathy toward data centers, and could curtail "questionable business models." The same analysis acknowledges that AI investment accounted for as much as a quarter of U.S. economic growth this year, according to ING economists. It also notes that Trump is still president and is "waving around his veto hat."

The industry's own research points to funding and public support as the constraints. Barclays wrote that "AI demand remains strong," and that what the market is questioning is funding, "as hyperscalers keep lifting capex while free cash flow evaporates." McKinsey says "incumbents can't meet demand for power." Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said earlier this year that AI computing likely needs about 1,000 times more energy than exists today.

The reactor makers' fortunes depend on whether that demand becomes signed contracts and built data centers. Oklo's next test is a signed Meta contract and a published cost for its first Aurora plant. NuScale's is the ENTRA1 and TVA deal.