By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), Nucor (NYSE:NUE), U.S. Steel (NYSE:X) and several others traded higher in Monday’s premarket, buoyed by the prospect of an earnings boost from the Biden administration’s $1-trillion infrastructure package .
Caterpillar stock, habitually seen as a proxy for heavy equipment spending by business, was up 4%, as was Nucor stock.
Shares of makers of building materials and those of construction companies also showed gains. Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) was up 3% and Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) 4%.
U.S. Steel, Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) and Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) each traded up a little less than 4%.
Shares of companies specializing in charging infrastructure for electric vehicles also benefited. ChargePoint stock (NYSE:CHPT) was up nearly 7% and Blink Charging (NASDAQ:BLNK) stock around 8%. The bill provides for around $7.5 billion in extra spending in this area.
The proposed spending is one of the most ambitious and substantial investment in roads, bridges, rail, communication including high-speed internet, electricity grids and water projects committed by any administration in several decades.
Friday’s approval by the Congress includes an additional $550 billion of investment in water projects, electricity grid and safety efforts. About $120 billion of the new spending would come in the form of competitive transportation grants, a report in The Wall Street Journal said.