A hot CPI print hammered the capital-intensive nuclear-buildout chain — Centrus -10.7%, SMR developers and uranium miners down 8-10%, the power rung off 5-7% — while Huntington Ingalls bucked the tape +2.6%.

Huntington Ingalls (HII) was the nuclear basket's standout Wednesday, up 2.6% to $264.53 — the naval-propulsion and reactor-fabrication name behaving like the defense prime it is on a flight-to-safety session, while the rest of the vertical was sold hard. The driver was macro: a hotter-than-expected September CPI reinforced higher-for-longer rate expectations and delivered the market's worst day since July. Nuclear is the most rate-sensitive vertical in the stack — every advanced-reactor and enrichment project requires enormous capital years before it earns a dollar — so a higher discount rate hits it with leverage, and it did.

The laggard was Centrus Energy (LEU), down 10.7% to $119.95 — the domestic HALEU-enrichment chokepoint, and the single most important bottleneck in the Western fuel cycle, giving back a chunk of a very large run. The SMR developers, which are pure duration bets with no near-term revenue, were right behind: NuScale (SMR) -10.2% to $5.83, NANO Nuclear (NNE) -9.3% to $13.01, Oklo (OKLO) -8.6% to $29.04, Lightbridge (LTBR) -10.1% to $5.07 and X-Energy (XE) -8.5% to $11.64. These names had already been giving back ground on rate anxiety earlier in the week; today's inflation print accelerated it. The read is consistent across the rung — this is a cost-of-capital repricing of long-dated projects, not a change in the reactor demand thesis.

The fuel-supply chokepoint sold with the developers: uranium miners Cameco (CCJ) -5.4% to $81.47, Uranium Energy (UEC) -6.6% to $7.70, Denison (DNN) -7.3% to $2.16 and Energy Fuels (UUUU) -10.0% to $8.34. The independent-power rung that supplies the data-center demand pulling new nuclear forward also derated for the first time this week: Vistra (VST) -6.5% to $151.79, GE Vernova (GEV) -6.2% to $941.78, Talen (TLN) -6.2% to $358.42 and Constellation (CEG) -5.5% to $279.54. The regulated utilities held up as the defensive anchor — NextEra (NEE) +0.2% to $78.37, PSEG (PEG) +0.1% to $70.56 — the predictable split between growth-priced and yield-priced power on a risk-off day.

The near calendar turns on project and fuel-cycle milestones rather than the macro. BWXT reports Q3 on November 2 and NANO Nuclear gives its fiscal year-end update November 15; X-Energy's Xe-100 construction-permit review hits an 18-month NRC milestone December 16; and the Westinghouse/US-government definitive agreements replacing the binding term sheet are targeted for year-end, alongside Bulgaria's Kozloduy AP1000 final investment decision. Each is a potential re-rate on fundamentals for the enrichment and reactor-fabrication chokepoints — but until the rate picture settles, the duration trade will set the tape, as it did today.