Obama’s Nuclear Announcement and Uranium ETF’s

Posted by webmaster in Cameco, DNN, Uranium News, Uranium Stocks, ccj on 02 23rd, 2010 | no responses

Last week Obama made an announcement that gave hope to stagnant Uranium stocks. He made a commitment to current and future loans to advance the United States nuclear energy position.

Via Investopedia

This past week, President Obama announced an $8.3 billion loan guarantee for the first new nuclear power plant to be constructed in 27 years…The case for nuclear energy is gaining steam in the U.S. as the president wants to triple the previous loan guarantee program to nearly $54 billion dollars and develop a plan for dealing with the generated waste.

Nuclear power plant producers have witnessed a nice push upwards after the announcement, yet actual Uranium U308 plays have received less than stellar bumps.

For example Denison gained less than 1%. Cameco pushed up only 3%. One way to gain full exposure to the overall nuclear energy category, yet not be fully exposed to the up-down nature of uranium stocks is to enter an ETF.

Market Vectors Nuclear Energy ETF (ticker NLR). Here are the funds top 10 holdings as of Feb 22nd, 2010:

As we can see the ETF does hold a large percentage of familiar names. Here’s the breakdown of the fund on a percentage basis.

With expense ratio’s capped at 0.65% this ETF offers an attractive option for those looking to expand out into the nuclear industry, all the while not being tied exclusively to uranium plays.