NEW YORK, March 21, 2026, 12:50 PM EDT
Constellation Energy slid 10.9% Friday to close at $281.99, erasing gains from earlier in the week. The drop followed its $5 billion PJM asset sale, and a sharp selloff hammered U.S. power stocks. Trading volume spiked: over 6.1 million shares exchanged hands versus 2.4 million the prior session. Vistra gave up 12.6%, NRG Energy was down 9.7%, and Talen Energy also lost 10.9%.
This is significant—Constellation now stands out as a top Wall Street play on surging AI data center power needs. After wrapping up its Calpine deal in January, the company’s footprint now spans nuclear, gas, and geothermal. Management is set to present its 2026 business and earnings roadmap on March 31.
The company announced Wednesday it’s offloading about 4.4 gigawatts—mostly gas-fired plants in Delaware and Pennsylvania—to LS Power. That marks the largest chunk of divestitures mandated by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in connection with the Calpine acquisition. CEO Joe Dominguez described the move as “an important step” toward satisfying DOJ requirements, adding that the rest of the remedies should wrap up later this year. Reuters
Constellation posted Calpine’s audited 2025 financials and the 2025 pro forma combined statements in a filing dated March 20, giving investors more merger-related details ahead of the outlook call. The company’s March 31 event is set to cover its 2026 business and earnings projections.
Timing matters here. Back in February, Reuters said PJM—the country’s biggest grid operator—was considering a plan that might nudge data center operators into striking direct agreements with independent power producers, those outfits supplying electricity to wholesale markets. James West at Melius Research was anticipating “a flurry of major data center-slash-power deals,” he told Reuters. Reuters
Zacks analyst Andrew Rocco flagged the grid’s shifting “pay-or-play” dynamic, which could push big generators like Constellation, Vistra, and Talen toward more bilateral contracting. Constellation, for its part, hasn’t waited. In February, its Calpine unit locked in a new 380-megawatt agreement with CyrusOne down in Texas, pushing the operator’s total contracted load above 1,100 MW in the state. Reuters
Meta announced earlier this year that its deal with Constellation, aimed at extending the life of an Illinois reactor by 20 years, would push the social media giant into the top tier of U.S. corporate nuclear power buyers. That agreement, set against projections for all-time high American electricity demand in 2026 and 2027, has kept Constellation’s ties to data centers firmly in the investor spotlight.
Friday’s decline, though, pointed to a market mood that’s turned sharply more cautious. The S&P 500 slid 1.51%, Reuters reported. Utilities ended up leading the laggards, sinking 4.11%. Bond yields rose, fueled by fresh jitters over inflation from rising oil prices, prompting investors to reassess expectations for rate cuts.
Company-specific risks aren’t going away. Reuters flagged that higher demand from data centers is already raising eyebrows over customer bills. And analysts pointed out, new PJM projects could easily hit bottlenecks—from permitting to state signoffs, and those notorious interconnection backlogs.
At this point, Constellation finds itself straddling two narratives: it’s got unusual 24/7 demand exposure, but it’s also a recently expanded generator navigating post-merger adjustments in a less certain economic climate. Investors get their next clear update on March 31, when management plans to lay out its 2026 strategy and earnings forecasts.
