Jon Najarian's #1 Energy Trade for 2026

Elon Musk just built the largest private power network in American history. Hall of Fame Trader Jon Najarian says one tiny $6 billion company is critical to every piece of it — and it's his #1 Energy Trade for 2026 as Elon's new "Infinite Power Grid" expands across America.

Watch Jon's breakdown here.

High Gas Prices Aren't Budging—Here Are 3 Stocks That Benefit

Submitted by Nathan Reiff. Date Posted: 9/7/2026.

Despite the Trump administration's best efforts to bring down gas prices amid the ongoing Iran war, prices at the pump have remained stubbornly elevated. While this may hurt investors when they fill up their cars, it also presents an opportunity. Rather than simply buying oil producers, thoughtful investors may find stronger opportunities among refiners, fuel distributors, and even convenience-store and gas-station companies.

Companies like Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX), HF Sinclair (NYSE: DINO), and CrossAmerica Partners LP (NYSE: CAPL) stand to profit from higher margins and strong fuel demand. Each provides exposure to a different niche, with a unique link to gasoline prices and other factors that can help diversify a portfolio in case of turbulence elsewhere in the market.

Phillips 66 Is a Diversified Refiner That Stands Apart

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Refining is a major earnings driver for oil and gas companies, particularly during periods of elevated fuel prices. Phillips 66 has a core refining business that is thriving—it helped drive an $8.5-billion revenue beat and a major earnings beat in Q2 2026—but it also benefits from midstream assets, a chemicals business, export infrastructure, and much more.

This diversification can help Phillips 66 smooth out its results amid industry turbulence, even as it continues to benefit from expanding gasoline and diesel margins.

Crack spreads across the refining industry are lingering above historical averages, thanks to supply disruptions related to the Iran war and other factors. This means Phillips 66 and other refiners can generate better margins on each barrel they process, leading to billions of dollars in quarterly profits and helping refiners repurchase shares in large quantities.

With its Gulf Coast footprint, Phillips 66 benefits from both domestic and export markets. As a result, the company may continue to benefit if gasoline prices remain elevated because of constrained refining capacity. Analysts see this potential, as two-thirds have rated PSX shares a Buy, even as they caution that the share price may fall somewhat in the near term.

HF Sinclair Brings Leverage to the Calculation

HF Sinclair relies more heavily on refining operations, meaning its profits may grow rapidly when crack spreads widen. This also makes the company particularly sensitive to refining margins.

While this can be a positive under the right conditions, it also leaves HF Sinclair more susceptible to refining-margin pressure, which can result in steep earnings declines.

Recently, this exposure has worked out very well for HF Sinclair. The company generated 53% year-over-year (YOY) revenue growth in the latest quarter alone, made all the more impressive by adjusted net income that roughly tripled over the same period.

Higher throughput and strong operational execution also helped drive these results. The company further bolstered its performance with contributions from its renewables, lubricants, and specialty-products businesses.

Shares of HF Sinclair are already up 130% year to date (YTD), prompting analysts to speculate that the firm may pull back somewhat. However, if gasoline prices remain high, the company may be able to extend this momentum.

A Retail-Based Approach Provides Variety

For investors seeking an entirely different approach, CrossAmerica Partners provides access to a master limited partnership that owns and leases fuel-distribution assets and convenience stores across the country.

Retail gasoline margins may function somewhat independently of wholesale prices, but sustained fuel demand can lead to higher volumes for these companies, along with strong in-store sales and increased rental income.

Fuel distribution is in many ways a defensive business, owing to consumers' reliance on gasoline even when the economy slows. This could provide CrossAmerica Partners with some insulation relative to its industry rivals when gas demand and prices eventually decline again.

The Case for Gas-Price-Linked Stocks Remains Strong

All of these companies appear poised to perform well as long as gasoline prices remain high, and there are plenty of reasons to expect that may be the case. Geopolitical risks remain deeply intertwined with the industry's performance. Global refining capacity is still constrained, while diesel markets remain tight, with inventories at low levels that are helping push refining margins higher.

To be sure, other companies in the oil and gas business may also benefit from continued high prices. Pipeline and midstream firms, for instance, benefit when production volumes are high, even if they are less directly linked to gasoline prices. When it comes to gas-price-linked shares, however, the three companies above may be an investor's first place to start.

Vertiv’s UIG Deal Targets the Next Big Constraint in AI Data Centers

Submitted by Chris Markoch. Date Posted: 9/4/2026.

Vertiv Holdings (NYSE: VRT) just made its clearest statement yet about where the next phase of AI infrastructure spending is headed. On Sept. 2, the company announced it will acquire UtilityInnovation Group (UIG), a microgrid and behind-the-meter power specialist. The deal will be financed with roughly $1.45 billion in cash up front, with another $1.15 billion tied to EBITDA targets over the next two years, pushing the total potential price tag to $2.6 billion.

The market's first reaction will likely focus on the cost. A 13x multiple on UIG's expected 2027 EBITDA isn't cheap for a company most investors have never heard of. But investors don't have to dig too deeply to see the bigger picture. The acquisition is really a bet on solving the single biggest constraint standing between AI data center demand and actual deployed capacity.

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Industry executives call it "time to power," and it's become as important as chip supply in determining how quickly AI infrastructure gets built. Utility interconnection queues in major markets can stretch for years. UIG's technology lets operators bypass that bottleneck through onsite generation and grid-independent architectures. Vertiv is betting that owning this capability outright is worth the premium.

What UtilityInnovation Group Brings to Vertiv

UIG isn't a generic acquisition target. Founded in 2020 and based in Raleigh, North Carolina, with a European headquarters in Dublin, the company built its business specifically around the messiest part of data center power planning: the handoff between the utility grid and the site itself. Its technology includes proprietary controls software and pre-engineered microgrid switchgear designed to coordinate multiple power sources in real time.

That's a different layer of the stack from what Vertiv has historically sold. Vertiv's core business has been power distribution, thermal management, and IT infrastructure inside the data center walls. UIG pushes Vertiv upstream, to where a customer is still deciding how to secure power before a single rack gets installed. CEO Gio Albertazzi said the deal extends Vertiv's reach "from source to chip" without locking customers into one supplier.

That framing matters for how investors should read this deal. It's not a diversification play into an unrelated business. It's a vertical extension into the exact problem that determines how quickly a data center can go from site selection to what Albertazzi called "first token."

Why Vertiv Structured the UIG Deal Around Performance Targets

The earnout structure deserves attention, too. Vertiv is paying $1.45 billion now and deferring up to $1.15 billion until UIG hits specific EBITDA milestones over 12- and 24-month periods. If the full earnout is paid, the effective multiple drops meaningfully below 13x because that scenario occurs only if UIG's growth materializes.

In other words, Vertiv isn't overpaying for a story. It's structuring the deal so that a large portion of the price is paid only if the growth is real. That's meaningfully different from an acquirer paying a rich multiple based purely on projected synergies, with no accountability built in.

Vertiv also expects the deal to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share (EPS) in year one. That's a notable claim for an acquisition of this size, and it suggests management has confidence in UIG's near-term cash generation, not just its long-term strategic fit.

Vertiv's Acquisition Tests the AI Infrastructure Growth Thesis

This deal is really a referendum on how durable the AI infrastructure buildout thesis is. Skeptics have argued for months that power constraints could cap the pace of data center construction, regardless of how much capital gets committed. Vertiv's move suggests the company sees that constraint not as a ceiling on the opportunity, but as the opportunity itself.

If time to power becomes as critical a differentiator as time to market has been in other industries, the company that owns the tools to compress that timeline captures outsized value. Vertiv is positioning itself to be that company, extending its portfolio from grid interconnect all the way to the rack.

There are real risks. The deal still needs regulatory approval and isn't expected to close until the fourth quarter of 2026. Integrating a company founded five years ago with global operations carries execution risk. The price tag is also substantial, even for a company of Vertiv's size.

How the Deal Fits Into the Broader Infrastructure Trade

The picks-and-shovels trade around AI data centers has evolved quickly. A year ago, the story was mostly chips and cooling. Now it's expanding into everything that touches power: transformers, switchgear and, increasingly, generation sources themselves.

Vertiv's move puts it in closer competition with Eaton (NYSE: ETN) and Quanta Services (NYSE: PWR), both of which are building out their own power-adjacent capabilities.

The difference is that Vertiv is buying rather than partnering, a bigger commitment that reshapes its growth algorithm.

This isn't a company simply riding demand for existing products. It's actively expanding its addressable market to capture more value within each customer relationship, positioning itself as a single, accountable vendor from grid interconnect to the rack.

What Investors Should Watch After the Vertiv-UIG Acquisition

Watch for commentary on UIG's order pipeline once Vertiv reports earnings following the deal's close. Any specifics on hyperscaler or colocation discussions already underway would quickly validate the demand thesis. Also track whether Eaton, Quanta Services or generation-focused players like Bloom Energy (NYSE: BE) make similar moves, confirming that the industry sees behind-the-meter power as the next frontier.

But the strategic logic is sound. AI data center operators aren't just competing on chip access anymore. They're competing on how quickly they can get power to those chips. Vertiv just bought a meaningful edge in that race, and the market will spend the next several quarters deciding whether the price was worth it.