Musk-Trump Breakup Puts Billions in SpaceX Contracts at Risk, Jolting US Space Program

Political

Economic

Summary:

At the Pentagon, SpaceX's rocket launch business is crucial for putting national security satellites in space. SpaceX's military satellite unit is building a massive spy constellation in orbit for a U.S. intelligence agency.

The fate of roughly $22 billion worth of SpaceX's government contracts is at risk and multiple U.S. space programs face looming changes in the fallout of a worsening fight between Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump, an explosive breakup over the administration's spending bill.

Disagreement spiraled quickly into fighting and chaos on Thursday after Trump lashed out at Musk in comments in the Oval Office. As Musk launched a series of missives on X, Trump threatened to terminate government contracts with companies owned by Musk, who in response said his space company "will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately."

SpaceX's Dragon capsule is the only U.S. spacecraft capable of sending astronauts to and from the International Space Station. NASA has relied on the spacecraft since 2020 under a contract with SpaceX worth $5 billion, one of many arrangements making Musk's space company a dominant element of the U.S. space program.

NASA did not immediately return a request for comment.

The feud has raised questions about how far Trump, an often unpredictable force who has politically intervened in past procurement efforts, is willing to go to punish Musk, such as whether the president would prioritize exacting political retaliation at the cost billions of dollars worth of SpaceX contracts that NASA and the Pentagon view as crucial to maintaining U.S. space power status.

SpaceX has won $15 billion worth of contracts from NASA as the agency relies on Dragon, puts many of its science payloads and spacecraft on the company's Falcon 9 rocket and helps fund development of SpaceX's Starship, which is poised to land NASA astronauts on the moon this decade.

Taking Dragon out of service would likely disrupt the ISS program, which involves dozens of countries under a two-decade-old international agreement, but it was unclear how quickly such a decommissioning would occur.

Musk has been looking to retire Dragon for years in order to prioritize Starship as the company's flagship human spaceflight vessel. In 2022, SpaceX opted to halt Dragon production, capping its fleet at four before NASA urged the company to build more as Boeing's Starliner capsule struggles in development.

Source: Reuters

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Cryptocurrency

Stocks

Circle, the company behind the stablecoin USDC, has officially gone public. The company’s stock, now trading under the ticker CRCL, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This development marks a major milestone for the firm and the broader crypto industry.

This company announced its public listing in an X post on June 5. Circle also shared plans to create a seamless value exchange using products like USDC, EURC, and Circle Payments. These tools aim to shape the future of digital finance.

Circle Sees Successful IPO Beyond Expectations

The demand for Circle’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) was massive. According to recent reports, the orders for the stock were 25 times more than the available shares. This high demand pushed Circle to raise its IPO price to $31 per share.

Circle sold some of its shares to the public and made over $1 billion. This big success shows that many investors trust the company and believe in its future in the growing world of digital money.

Circle Aims to Build the Money Layer of the Internet

Circle’s CEO, Jeremy Allaire, said this is just the start of a new journey. He shared that the company was founded with a clear mission: to use internet technology to help rebuild the global economic system.

Allaire said Circle does not just want to make financial products; it wants to create the Internet’s money layer. He also reflected on Circle’s early days, saying he always believed the company was a long-term project.

More than ten years later, the CEO believes the vision is just becoming real. In the post, Allaire thanked everyone who has supported Circle’s journey. This move could further boost Circle’s stablecoin revenue.

Being a public company could build trust, attract bigger partners, and bring more attention to USDC. With more money from the IPO, Circle can grow faster and reach more users, which may lead to higher earnings.

Industry Leaders Back Circle’s IPO

Circle’s public debut caught the attention of major players on Wall Street. Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest and Larry Fink’s BlackRock were interested in the IPO. Ark Invest reportedly aimed to buy up to $150 million shares.

This shows that big investors trust Circle and believe it will do well in the future. Circle’s listing on the NYSE is not just a win for the company; it is also a big step forward for the whole crypto world.

Coinbase, a long-time partner of Circle, congratulated the company on X and said this development is essential for the entire industry. Likewise, Michael Saylor, the co-founder of Strategy, also shared his congratulations.

This shows that many people see Circle’s IPO as an essential moment for the future of digital money.

Source: TheCoinRise

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Forex

China–U.S. Trade War

The U.S. declined to label China a currency manipulator in a new Treasury report released Thursday, but accuses Beijing of standing out among America's major trading partners for lacking transparency in its exchange rate policies.

Treasury’s semi-annual report to Congress — called Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States— comes as the Trump administration seeks to strike a trade deal with China, averting a trade war that has been brewing between the two nations.

A Treasury official told reporters previewing the report that the U.S. could in the future find evidence that China is manipulating its currency and will make a determination in the fall whether China has been manipulating the renminbi, also known as RMB.

During President Donald Trump 's first term, the Treasury, which was then led by Secretary Steve Mnuchin, labeled China a currency manipulator in 2019 — before then the U.S. had not put China on the currency blacklist since 1994.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration “has put our trading partners on notice that macroeconomic policies that incentivize an unbalanced trading relationship with the United States will no longer be accepted.”

“Moving forward, Treasury will use all available tools at its disposal to implement strong countermeasures against unfair currency practices,” he said.

The decision not to sanction China for currency manipulation comes after Trump said Thursday that his first call with China's Xi Jinping since returning to office was “very positive,” announcing that the two countries will hold trade talks in hopes of breaking an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals.

“Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined,” Trump wrote on his social media platform after the call, which he said lasted an hour and a half.

Trump has lowered his 145% tariffs on Chinese goods to 30% for 90 days to allow for talks. China also reduced its taxes on U.S. goods from 125% to 10%. The back and forth has caused sharp swings in global markets and threatens to hamper trade between the two countries.

Source: AP

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China–U.S. Trade War

Economic

Container shipping rates continued their climb this week, fueled by the temporary tariff pause between the U.S. and China, but there are signs that demand underpinning the surge is moderating, financial analysts and maritime consultants said.

Ocean vessels transport more than 80% of goods traded globally. Hulking container vessels operated by companies like MSC and Maersk ferry toys and apparel to Walmart stores and parts to factories run by major manufacturers such as Ford Motor Co. Off-contract spot rates for moving container cargo are seen as a gauge of economic conditions.

Maritime consultancy Drewry on Thursday said its World Container Index jumped 41% week-over-week to $3,527 per 40-foot container (FEU). The index was up 70% in the last four weeks, spurred by the May 12 U.S.-China trade truce that cut China tariffs to 30% from the 145% rate that collapsed trade between the world's two largest economies.

Freight rates from Shanghai to Los Angeles, home to the busiest U.S. seaport, surged 57% to $5,876 per FEU in the past week and 117% since May 8, Drewry said. That rate is down 2% from a year ago and well below the $10,000-plus rates seen during the height of the COVID supply chain crunch.

The closely watched Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, which tracks spot rates from the world's busiest container port in Shanghai, is on track to report another gain this week, Jefferies shipping analyst Omar Nokta said in a client note.

The underlying SCFI route to the U.S. West coast was $5,172 per FEU last week and the latest spot rates are closer to $6,000, Nokta said.

Still, those rates may be peaking as quotes for the second half of June are closer to the $5,000 to $5,500 per FEU range, he said.

Drewry's Container Forecaster expects demand to weaken again in the second half of this year, which would cause rates to fall again.

The volatility and timing of rate changes will depend on the outcome of legal challenges to Trump's tariffs and on capacity changes related to the introduction of port fees on Chinese ships, Drewry said.

Source: Reuters

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China–U.S. Trade War

Economic

Wall Street edged higher and crude prices advanced on Thursday as investors weighed new trade talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping against a spate of downbeat economic data ahead of Friday's crucial jobs report.

In choppy trading, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were last modestly lower and the Dow was barely in positive territory, while U.S. Treasury yields oscillated and gold weakened.

Trump held talks with Xi by phone on Thursday in an effort to iron out trade disputes between the world's two largest economies that have buffeted the global economy, and they agreed to further discussions, according to U.S. and Chinese summaries of their call.

"The market seems to be accepting that if they're talking they're not going to do anything drastic, and if they don't do anything drastic, then it's okay to buy stocks now," said Thomas Martin, Senior Portfolio Manager at GLOBALT in Atlanta. "People are just sort of guessing and wondering which way the wind is blowing and the wind keeps shifting."

"I think investors want to own stocks and they're afraid of missing out, but they also don't want to own stocks if it's going to be a disaster," Martin added.

Economic data showed initial jobless claims hit the highest level since October, while a 16.3% drop in imports - arising from Trump's erratic tariff policy - resulted in the narrowest U.S. trade gap since November 2023. US Stocks Seesaw as Investors Weigh Potential Progress in US-China Trade Talks Against Soft Data_1

US Stocks Seesaw as Investors Weigh Potential Progress in US-China Trade Talks Against Soft Data_1

Weaker-than-expected labor market data, including a 47% year-on-year jump in Challenger layoffs and a significant downside surprise in ADP's private payrolls, are dampening expectations for the Labor Department's closely watched May employment report expected on Friday.

But Matthew Keator, managing partner in the Keator Group in Lenox, Massachusetts believes the softer data could open the door for the Federal Reserve to implement more than one rate cut before the end of the year.

"With some of the more benign inflation numbers that have come through recently and a potential pick-up in jobless claims might give the Fed a little bit more cause to (cut interest rates) at least maybe more than once this year," Keator said.

"That could be an encouraging sign, particularly for some sectors."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), rose 62.89 points, or 0.15%, to 42,491.60, the S&P 500 (.SPX), fell 3.56 points, or 0.06%, to 5,967.38 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), fell 40.84 points, or 0.22%, to 19,419.88.

ECB CUTS RATES

As widely expected, the European Central Bank lowered its three key interest rates by 25 basis points, a decision based on its updated economic outlook now that inflation is currently around the central bank's 2% target.

Even so, European shares pared earlier gains to close only slightly in positive territory after ECB President Christine Lagarde appeared to float the possibility of a summer pause in its year-long easing cycle.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS), rose 0.17 points, or 0.0 2%, to 889.10.

The pan-European STOXX 600 (.STOXX), index rose 0.16%, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index (.FTEU3), rose 4.07 points, or 0.19%.

Emerging market stocks (.MSCIEF), rose 9.86 points, or 0.84%, to 1,182.31. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS),closed higher by 0.82%, to 622.95, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225), fell 192.96 points, or 0.51%, to 37,554.49.

The dollar reversed earlier gains in the wake of the soft U.S. economic indicators and Lagarde's hints at an ECB rate pause.

The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.02% to 98.81, with the euro up 0.14% at $1.1433.

Against the Japanese yen , the dollar strengthened 0.67% to 143.73.

U.S. Treasury yields wavered in choppy trading following the unexpected increase in jobless claims, the latest soft labor market data in advance of Friday's employment report.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 3 basis points to 4.395%, from 4.365% late on Wednesday.

The 30-year bond yield fell 0.2 basis points to 4.8856% from 4.888% late on Wednesday.

The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, rose 5.1 basis points to 3.928%, from 3.877% late on Wednesday.

Crude oil prices rose after reports of the Trump/Xi call, which helped investors look past the U.S. stockpile buildup and Saudi Arabia's July price cuts for Asia.

U.S. crude rose 0.83% to settle at $63.37 per barrel, while Brent settled at $65.34 per barrel, up 0.74% on the day.

Gold prices reversed an earlier gain after the Trump-Xi call hinted at a thaw in trade relations between Washington and Beijing.

Spot gold fell 0.65% to $3,353.64 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 0.72% to $3,349.20 an ounce.

Source: Reuters

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Political

From the moment Donald Trump and Elon Musk joined forces, betting in Washington held that the president’s bond with the First Buddy who bankrolled his comeback election win wouldn’t last.

The breakup finally arrived this week, an escalating tit-for-tat between the world’s richest man and the president of the US, who spent much of Thursday sniping at one another via social media posts and cameras in the Oval Office.

Speaking to reporters, Trump pronounced himself “very disappointed” in Musk over the billionaire’s harsh criticism of a Republican tax and spending bill. Posting on X, his social media platform, Musk declared that Trump wouldn’t have won a second term without his help. “Such ingratitude,” the Tesla Inc. and SpaceX CEO declared.

For a rift that had seemed inevitable, the descent into public recrimination was startling, even by Trump’s volatile standard, which often sees former allies and underlings cast aside without fanfare.

Musk spent the early months of Trump’s second term offering obsequious praise and absorbing some of the political backlash of the slashing budget cuts and employee firings that have been a pillar of Trump’s agenda. Trump, meanwhile, had elevated Musk, a government novice in a temporary role, to a position of unprecedented breadth to reshape and unmake the entire federal bureaucracy, with only occasional checks from the agency heads actually confirmed by the Senate.

But on Thursday, their blow-up found Trump accusing Musk of trying to tank the spending bill because its elimination of electric vehicle credits hurt Tesla’s bottom line, while Musk took to social media posts to deny Trump’s Oval Office comments and taunt the president with his own past postings. “Where is this guy today??” Musk wrote.

Musk went so far as to poll his social media followers about whether he should “create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”

Their relationship first blossomed at the height of the 2024 presidential campaign and deepened as Musk joined the new administration to slash the federal bureaucracy — a role that aligned with the tech titan’s commercial interests and his politics with the philosophy of others in the incoming administration, like Russ Vought, the director of the Office and Management and Budget.

But it unraveled this week over the unavoidable task of putting the administration’s rhetoric about spending into practice, via a tax bill that’s the centerpiece of Trump’s domestic agenda.

With posts on social media urging lawmakers to reject Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” Musk exposed a rupture that had been growing between him and the president for weeks, fueled at first by clashes with cabinet members over agency cuts and differences with the administration’s sweeping tariff plans.

Musk’s public break with Trump threatens further fallout for the allies he helped to install in key positions across federal agencies during his time overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency that he prodded Trump to create.

It also raises questions about whether the biggest billionaire spender of the 2024 election will remain a reliable source of campaign funding to sustain Republican control of the House in the midterm elections and to make permanent Trump’s political movement.

Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist who was deputized in 2017 to confront Musk about his demands for EV and battery mandates, said he cautioned Trump and his inner circle about the entrepreneur after the 2024 election.

“I warned people in the transition, this guy is unpredictable, immature and a narcissist, and he’d turn on anybody — including the president — when it suited him,” says Bannon, who has frequently criticized Musk on his “War Room” podcast.

Bannon says Musk’s downfall from his status as “Chief Buddy” was inevitable, because he could not produce the $1 trillion in budget cuts he claimed he could during the transition. “He was too incompetent and lied about being able to find a trillion dollars of cuts in waste, fraud and abuse,” says Bannon. “He misled everybody, including the president.”

Trump’s Orbit

Administration officials who have bristled at Musk’s power and bedside manner have been moving to reassert their influence in the executive branch since he announced his departure from DOGE, people familiar with the matter said.

That includes the installation of a close associate of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles as chief of staff at NASA – an agency that is crucial to SpaceX, a company that makes up a third of his net worth. People familiar with the matter said the withdrawal of the nomination of Jared Isaacman, a Musk ally who was poised to run the space agency, was driven by Sergio Gor – the director of the Presidential Personnel Office, with whom Musk had sparred during his DOGE tenure.

“A lot of Musk’s power stemmed from the fact that he was seen as an extension of Trump,” said Stephen Myrow, who runs Beacon Policy Advisers. “But now that there’s distance between them, that power might be waning.”

“I always talk about the ‘evolving orbit’ around Trump – people are always drifting in and out,” Myrow added. “I wouldn’t say Musk’s relationship with Trump is severed. But between Isaacman’s nomination being pulled and his public criticisms of the tax bill, he looks to be in the waning phase of his orbit.”

A White House official in an email pointed to multiple past donations that Isaacman had made to Democrats, suggesting that was the reason his nomination was nixed. In a podcast interview Wednesday, Isaacman said he didn’t believe that was the reason, given the information had long been publicly available.

“President Trump is the ultimate decision maker on who has the privilege of serving in his historic administration,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said. “Any claims to the contrary are completely false.”

Musk didn’t respond to a message seeking comment. On X, his social media platform, one user said Isaacman’s removal was a “gut punch for the space agency,” to which Musk responded with a ‘100’ emoji, indicating he agreed 100%.

‘At Great Personal Cost’

The fissure caps a roller-coaster 11 months from Musk’s endorsement of Trump in July of 2024. Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect Trump and Republicans in 2024, and when the once and future president defeated Kamala Harris in November’s election, he turned to Musk to lead an effort to slash the size and scope of government.

Musk scythed through the federal bureaucracy while Trump unleashed a flurry of executive actions, each seeking to dismantle the administrative state at what the White House came to call “Trump speed.”

Yet swift progress on conservative priorities came with a price tag for Musk, who has seen his own net worth plummet in part because of reputational tarnish at home and abroad from his political actions and affiliation with Trump.

Musk’s net worth — much of it tied to the performance of Tesla — has dropped an estimated $64.1 billion so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It’s the largest on-paper loss of any of the world’s 500 richest people. Trump-Musk Alliance Unravels Over "Big Beautiful Bill"_1

Trump-Musk Alliance Unravels Over "Big Beautiful Bill"_1

And now, on his top political focus point of deficit reduction, any success Musk can claim — achieved, in his own words, “at great personal cost and risk” — may be drowned out by the president’s own signature legislation.

The Congressional Budget Office projected that the House-passed tax and spending bill at the center of Trump’s legislative agenda would add more than $2.4 trillion to US budget deficits over the next 10 years, slashing revenues by $3.67 trillion while only cutting spending by $1.25 trillion.

That’s way above even DOGE’s most optimistic savings estimates. Its government website listing estimated savings states that DOGE has saved taxpayers about $180 billion year-to-date. However its “Wall of Receipts” — a line-by-line list of contracts, grants and leases canceled since Inauguration Day — only accounts for less than half of that number.

Adding to the risk for Musk’s bottom line, Trump’s bill would wipe out some valuable tax incentives that bolster his own companies. Musk personally appealed to House Speaker Mike Johnson to save tax credits for electric vehicles, according to a person familiar with the matter, but ultimately lost that fight.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday, Johnson did not confirm whether Musk had approached him over the credits, but said the two would speak later in the day, adding that Musk seems “pretty dug in right now, and I can’t quite understand the motivation behind it.”

Musk’s criticism of the spending package built slowly.

On Tuesday, however, Musk lashed out, posting on his social media platform, X, that the bill was “pork-filled” and “a disgusting abomination.”

Adding insult to injury for the White House, Musk has embraced the very argument that the administration has been trying to combat, noting the bill would significantly widen the federal budget deficit.

By Wednesday afternoon, Musk was posting about “debt slavery” and sharing an image of Uma Thurman holding a samurai sword — the poster for the film “Kill Bill.”

Widening Rift

The rift between the two billionaire showmen — each renowned for seeking out the spotlight, and not for sharing it — had seemed to be widening for a while.

Even as Musk embraced his DOGE role and continued making periodic appearances at the White House, he broke with some of Trump’s policies.

Musk has criticized tariffs, the primary tool in Trump’s economic agenda, but one that has shown the potential for massive disruption in markets Musk moves in, including those for batteries critical to the fate of Tesla’s automotive and energy units.

An outside Trump adviser said the president remained furious about an incident, reported by The New York Times, in which Musk angled to obtain a classified briefing from the Pentagon about the upshot of a war with China, where Musk has extensive economic interests, especially via Tesla.

As public furor grew over DOGE’s unilateral cuts to federal agencies, Trump publicly reined Musk in, asserting that cabinet officials would have final say over proposed reductions. Trump-Musk Alliance Unravels Over "Big Beautiful Bill"_2

Trump-Musk Alliance Unravels Over "Big Beautiful Bill"_2

In a May 20 appearance at the Qatar Economic Forum, Musk told Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain he intended to pull back from political giving, only months after spending nearly $300 million to boost Trump’s successful campaign for the White House.

Sour Taste

Behind the scenes, Musk’s sojourn through the West Wing left a sour taste for some officials, according to the outside adviser and one person within the administration.

The outside adviser particularly noted Musk’s brusque treatment of Wiles, who managed Trump’s victorious campaign before joining the administration. It was a longtime Wiles ally, Brian Hughes, who was sent to serve as NASA chief of staff, a position from which he could serve as a check in an agency that is central to SpaceX’s fortunes.

A senior White House official said Wiles and Musk had a cordial and collaborative relationship, and that the chief of staff met weekly with the tech entrepreneuer as he led DOGE.

The official said Hughes had long wanted to work at NASA, and that his placement there was not an effort to keep tabs on Musk and SpaceX.

A person familiar with SpaceX discounted the chance that bad blood between Musk and Trump would have an immediate negative effect on the company, because it has carved out such a dominant position in the launch business even as corporate rivals have struggled. But the person said there is frustration that the company’s brand has been damaged, first with Democrats who were appalled by Musk’s embrace of Trump and DOGE’s tactics, and now with Trump supporters in Washington, who will likely side with the president over Musk.

But Musk’s time with Trump has already yielded benefits in other ways, said Myrow, especially in areas where the administration or DOGE pulled the plug on aspects of the regulatory state that had previously tangled with his companies.

“For Musk personally, the SEC stuff went away,” Myrow said, referring to Securities and Exchange Commission investigations. “And he’s long wanted to turn X into an ‘everything app,’ and now a lot of the regulations that would have inhibited that are going away.”

Source: Bloomberg

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Stocks

Investors often skip over the utilities sector in favor of companies in higher-growth industries. Utilities stocks tend to be stable sources of dividend income and defensive plays. With all of the tumult in markets so far in 2025, though, the utilities sector has actually emerged as one of the most resilient sectors.

The Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:), an exchange-traded fund (ETF) holding more than 30 of the top utilities names and a benchmark for the sector as a whole, has returned 8% year-to-date (YTD).

By comparison, the is up under 2% over the same period.

Utilities stocks have held strong due to consistent demand even as names in other sectors zig-zagged up and down amid general volatility and turmoil. Another factor buoying some utilities companies is their potential role in serving data centers that are key to AI and cloud technologies.

For investors seeking a utilities play that has the potential for growth to balance the sector’s natural defensiveness, a number of companies may strike the right balance of risk and reward.

Strong Growth for Mid-Atlantic Water Utility Across Business Lines

Mid-Atlantic region water and wastewater utilities provider Artesian Resources (NASDAQ:) saw shares climb by about 10% YTD, although with price-to-book and price-to-sales ratios of 1.53 and 3.24, respectively, shares appear to be fairly attractively valued nonetheless.

The company may draw investors’ interest because of its positive earnings surprise in May. With earnings per share (EPS) of 53 cents, Artesian topped analyst predictions by an impressive 18 cents per share. Quarterly revenue also exceeded predictions; analysts see room for further earnings growth.

Artesian’s earnings performance improved thanks to growth in both its water and wastewater revenue. During the quarter, the company increased its customer count and instituted a new distribution system improvement charge. The company’s service line protection plan gained in popularity, driving 8% year-over-year (YOY) growth in non-utility revenue.

With an increase in rates likely later this year, Artesian’s top line should continue to grow. This should only help the company to maintain or grow its attractive dividend yield of 3.58%, which it achieves with a healthy payout ratio of 59.13%.

Battery Systems Propels Clearway to EPS Beat

Clearway Energy (NYSE:) is primarily a renewable energy utilities firm, although it also operates a conventional energy business. What investors may be most drawn to in this company, however, are its battery storage operations. Its Honeycomb portfolio of battery energy storage systems in Utah began construction in March and is expected to reach commercialization in 2026.

It has helped further establish Clearway as a leader in dispatchable power, which is likely to become increasingly important in areas suffering from a lack of energy grid reliability in the future.

Clearway marked a successful first quarter of the year with an EPS beat, coming in at 3 cents per share when analysts have predicted a loss. Adjusted EBITDA for its renewables and storage segment climbed by about 30% YOY, and generation in that segment was 13% higher than the prior-year quarter.

While Clearway has a high dividend yield of 5.67%, it also sports a dividend payout ratio of 218.75%, meaning that it may be overpaying on dividends relative to its earnings. This is not a good sign for the company’s future dividend payments, unless it is able to maintain earnings growth.

Earnings Beat and Renewables Push Drive Enthusiasm for NiSource

Shares of and electric utility company NiSource (NYSE:) are up more than 8% YTD along with the broader utilities sector as the company recently beat earnings estimates by 8 cents per share.

The company also reaffirmed its long-term goal of 6–8% EPS growth, which analysts see coming to pass.

NiSource is in the early stages of a massive growth project.

The company plans to allocate $19 billion in expenditures toward 2,100 MW of renewables secured well below market prices.

Analysts have signed on unanimously to the company’s efforts, with all 10 that have reviewed NI shares offering a Buy rating.

What’s more, the firm pays out a healthy 2.84% dividend yield with a 60.54% payout ratio.