The Global X Uranium ETF (NYSEArca: URA), which tracks uranium miners, has stumbled for several years and over that time, there has been no shortage of uranium market observers voicing bullish opinions on the commodity.
Uranium remains controversial even five years after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan. In response to the fallout, anti-nuclear activists have aggressively petitioned courts to block restarting the plants. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has also been a vocal nuclear power proponent, arguing that atomic power, which generated almost one-third of Japan’s electricity pre-Fukushima, helps diminish the country’s reliance on expensive fossil fuel imports.
SEE MORE: Uranium ETF Endures Commodity’s Slide
There are fundamental factors that favor an eventual rebound in uranium stocks.
“Countries like Japan, Germany and a host of other nations dreaming of giving up on Nuclear energy are well just dreaming. Japan is now re-embracing nuclear, as will Germany and or any other country with hopes to wean itself away from Nuclear power. It is either Nuclear power or Coal, and since these countries claim to be fighting global warming, they will rather embrace Nuclear than coal,” according to Mining.com.
[related_stories]Another often cited catalyst by uranium bulls is emerging markets demand.