Shares of power producers surged as traders rotated into a group that's been a laggard for three years.

The SPDR Select Sector Utilities exchange-traded fund, which tracks the utilities industry group of the S&P 500, rose by almost 3%, bursting into positive territory for the year to date.

The ETF is trading at $65.20, still shy of its prepandemic peak of $68.59, reached in 2020, which it briefly surpassed in 2022.

Artificial intelligence can bring many benefits to the power sector despite AI systems' enormous use of electricity, renewable-energy fund managers argued at a conference, as reported earlier.


Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-27-24 1744ET