Daily Nuclear & Uranium Market Recap
3/12/26
Daily Nuclear & Uranium Market Recap
Thursday, March 12, 2026
Market Overview
The nuclear and uranium complex delivered a quiet, slightly positive session at the index level, with selective strength in enrichment and small caps offset by modest weakness in SMR and advanced reactor names. Uranium traded flat at $85.90/lb on March 11, down about 4.0% over the past month but still 35.2% higher year over year, and models continue to project $86.3 by quarter end and $91.8 in 12 months. Uranium Spotlight’s March 10 update noted spot at $86.80/lb, “essentially unchanged” week over week, with about 16.3M lbs transacted year to date, already 70% plus more volume than the same period in 2025, underscoring elevated physical activity despite price stagnation.
Key Equity Movers, Winners
Centrus Energy (LEU) closed at $214.40, plus 7.01% on 1.1M shares, the standout move of the day. Zacks this week pointed out LEU shares were down 19.3% over three months on softer Q4 revenues and margins, despite exiting 2025 with a $3.8B order backlog and a central role in rebuilding U.S. enrichment and HALEU supply. Today’s bounce looks like “buy the dip” flows back into the leading U.S. enrichment pure play.
enCore Energy (EU) closed at $2.09, plus 5.56% on 3.6M shares, extending the modest recovery after Monday’s year end results. EU highlighted 655k lbs sold in 2025 at $65.89/lb with about $14.8/lb gross margin and a strengthened balance sheet via warrant exercises.
Skillful Craftsmen (SKBL) closed at $3.08, plus 5.12% on light volume, a micro cap bounce with little read through.
ASP Isotopes (ASPI) closed at $5.85, plus 2.96% on 8.7M shares, another high volume green day that reinforces ASPI as a relative strength name. Interest remains anchored in the Quantum Leap Energy and HALEU enrichment thesis and South Africa’s NECSA partnership.
Ur Energy (URG) closed at $1.59, plus 2.58% on 5.4M shares, recovering a bit of last week’s losses.
Uranium Royalty (UROY) closed at $3.87, plus 1.57% on 2.4M shares. A Seeking Alpha note this week reiterated the case for royalty exposure as a lower operating risk way to capture upside to uranium prices.
BWX Technologies (BWXT) closed at $197.95, plus 1.01% on 1.2M shares, Constellation (CEG) at $301.75, plus 0.35% and Vistra (VST) at $159.21, plus 0.03%, all essentially grinding sideways while miners and SMRs oscillate.
DNN Earnings and Reaction
Denison Mines (DNN) closed at $4.00, minus 0.02% on 35.1M shares, effectively flat but with heavy volume as the market processed the company’s 2025 results and Phoenix ISR FID.
Headline numbers:
Q4 loss of $36.8M, or minus $0.04 per share, with adjusted loss of minus $0.02 per share, matching consensus EPS.
Q4 revenue of roughly $0.88 to $0.90M, about 12 to 13% above estimates, and FY 2025 revenue around $3.5M.
Strategic update:
Denison announced a Final Investment Decision (FID) to construct the Phoenix ISR uranium mine, marking the first ISR development of this scale in the Athabasca Basin.
Updated initial capital cost post FID is about $600M (Class 2 estimate), reflecting inflation, project refinements, and substantial pre FID engineering and procurement work already completed.
2025 production from the McClean Lake joint venture totaled 648,558 lbs U33O88(Denison share 145,926 lbs) at an average operating cash cost of roughly $36/lb (about US$26/lb), highlighting strong cost competitiveness relative to current spot.
A PEA for the Midwest Main ISR project outlines potential production of 37.4M lbs over about 6 years (around 6.1M lbs per year) with an after tax NPV of $965M and IRR of 82.7%, underscoring Denison’s broader growth pipeline.
Desk read: The print was in line on EPS, better on revenue, and decisive on project sanctioning, yet the stock closed flat. That suggests FID and capex detail were largely priced in after the CNSC approval. The market now wants to see financing structure, offtakes, and early execution rather than just plans.
Other Notable Movers
Cameco (CCJ) closed at $115.45, plus 0.05% on 4.0M shares, essentially unchanged. Cameco’s own price table still shows February spot at $86.95/lb, up from $65.03 a year earlier, highlighting how much miners have de rated versus the commodity over the past month.
NexGen (NXE) closed at $12.61, minus 0.28% on 7.9M shares after an intraday high of 13.46, fading into the close.
Uranium Energy (UEC) closed at $14.08, minus 0.50% on 10.2M shares, digesting its Q2 report and yesterday’s selloff despite strong realized prices ($101/lb on 200k lbs sold) and a fortress balance sheet.
Energy Fuels (UUUU) closed at $19.68, minus 1.94% on 8.9M shares, Nano Nuclear (NNE) at $24.00, minus 2.95%, Lightbridge (LTBR) at $11.64, minus 4.04%.
SMR and advanced reactor plus AI‑adjacent names:
SMR closed at $11.80, minus 4.68% on 15.9M shares.
OKLO at $59.62, minus 5.00% on 7.1M shares.
NUAI at $4.94, minus 6.08% on 3.1M shares.
These names continue to trade as rate sensitive, high duration tech proxies rather than direct uranium plays, echoing recent commentary that, while they may participate in a long term $10T nuclear build out, the path is long and headline driven.
Uranium Market Backdrop
Spot and futures: Uranium traded flat at $85.90/lb on March 11, down 4.0% over the past month but plus 35.2% year over year. Models still point to about $86.3 by quarter end and about $91.8 in 12 months. Uranium Spotlight reported last week’s spot at $86.80/lb, “essentially unchanged” from $86.85 at the start of the week, even as spot transaction volumes have surged more than 70% versus early 2025.
Long term context: January’s spot in the low $80s was already a 17 month high, with long term contract prices stabilizing in the $75 to 85/lb band, levels that support new production sanctioning such as Phoenix. TradeTech’s monthly Exchange Value climbed to $81.70/lb by Dec. 31, 2025, up from a 2025 low of $64/lb, highlighting a steady upward reset in the price deck utilities use for contracting.
SEQH Desk View
Today looked like a “wait and see” consolidation day layered on top of meaningful fundamental news from Denison. LEU’s plus 7% move and ASPI’s continued strength underline where the smart money is gravitating: enrichment and differentiated fuel cycle stories. That fits the broader theme we have been hammering, value is increasingly found in the bottlenecks (enrichment, HALEU, advanced fuels), not just in generic pounds in the ground.
DNN’s FID on Phoenix formally transitions it from a “story stock” into an actual project developer with a $600M capex bill to execute. The Athabasca ISR first mover advantage is real, and the updated capex, cost profile, and Midwest Main PEA economics validate the strategic case. The stock’s flat close on 35M shares says investors are now focused on funding terms, construction risk, and the path to first cash flow, not on whether the project will be built at all.
Meanwhile, the commodity is still quietly doing its job: spot sitting at $85 to 86, 35% higher year over year, with long term prices and contracting activity supporting new FIDs. Equities are still digesting tariffs, rates, and war headlines, but the underlying fuel market the sector is ultimately tethered to remains firm.