Three stocks for investing in the post-Epic Fury missile restocking boom

Today’s issue in preview:

• Three stocks for investing in the post-Epic Fury missile restocking boom

• Operation Epic Fury sent this ETF lower. It’s poised to bounce back and reach new all-time highs

• How to invest in the booming Power Grid Upgrade theme

Three stocks for investing in the post-Epic Fury missile restocking boom

Credit: NickolayV

Operation Epic Fury has upended Middle Eastern politics and created dozens of unanswered questions. However, at least one thing is certain regardless of the outcome: Missile stockpiles must be rebuilt.

This is bullish for missile makers and their downstream component and material suppliers. It’s also another facet of the Defense Tech theme we’ve been bullish on for more than two years.

In January, National Defense magazine reported that global defense spending is on pace to reach a colossal $2.6 trillion in 2026. This total would represent an 8.1% increase over 2025. Operation Epic Fury is showing us how this tidal wave of money will be spent on bleeding-edge technology.

Unlike the “boots on the ground” wars of the past, Operation Epic Fury is being fought by the U.S. almost completely with drones, missiles, and satellites. It’s estimated that the U.S. fired over 400 Tomahawk missiles in the first three days of the conflict. Iran has fired thousands of drones and missiles in return. The Pentagon recently told Congress that the first six days of the war cost $11.3 billion.

In this high-tech version of war, the foot soldier is growing less and less relevant… and having more and better high-tech drones, missiles, and satellites than your enemy is critical.

As a result, the U.S. and the Gulf States are using huge stores of both offensive and defensive missiles during Epic Fury. Rebuilding these stores will add even more demand to already strained global missile supply chains, which should provide a tailwind to the following producers of missiles and missile components:

L3Harris (LHX): LHX is a stable large-cap play on missiles. It’s a $67 billion company that is central to the missile maker story because it makes the engines for America’s missile defense systems. Through its Aerojet Rocketdyne business, it builds the rocket motors that push interceptors into the sky to take down missiles before they reach their targets. This makes LHX one of the very first places money goes to in a world where defense spending surges.

Leonardo (DRS): DRS is a $12 billion European pure-play in missiles and air defense. In a world where Epic Fury-style conflicts are burning through interceptors, DRS becomes the direct beneficiary of any sustained warfare. DRS is also investing heavily in increased R&D to accelerate advanced defense technologies, which gives investors confidence that DRS is building a long-term, structurally sound business, rather than one that just moves during warfare.

Karman Holdings (KRMN): KRMN is a pure-play $13 billion missile manufacturer. It designs and manufactures missile launch systems and other defense components. On March 10, 2026, KRMN announced it is quadrupling capacity for missile and counter launch systems to meet customer demand. KRMN is growing revenues at 52% in 2026, which is massive for a $13B defense company.

As war goes increasingly high-tech and more missile arsenals are built or rebuilt, these companies stand to benefit.

Operation Epic Fury sent this ETF lower. It’s poised to bounce back and reach new all-time highs

Credit: tifonimages

Many critical resources trends, hit by Operation Epic Fury selling, are now poised to resume long-term uptrends.

Yesterday, we highlighted that nuclear power and uranium have strong, long-term fundamental tailwinds. However, market-wide selling amid Operation Epic Fury triggered a sharp selloff in the sector. Now that the end of Epic Fury is likely near, uranium miners are back in shape and poised to resume their long-term uptrend.

The copper mining uptrend looks much the same.

For over two years, I’ve been long the copper mining theme, and I’ve urged others to go long as well. The bull case here is simple: Over the past 30 years, the copper mining industry has discovered or developed few meaningful copper deposits. Meanwhile, the collective buildout related to AI, power grids, renewable energy, and EVs is turbocharging copper demand. S&P Global expects global annual copper demand to increase roughly 50% by 2040.

My call is proving to be a big winner. The copper market’s giant, long-term bullish dynamics are creating a glacier-like megatrend of gradually rising prices… which is driving copper mining firms higher and higher.

The Global X Copper Miners ETF (COPX) is the world’s largest copper mining-focused ETF. In August 2025, COPX broke out to a new 52-week high and bolted 35% in less than two months.

After digesting this large gain and moving sideways for a few months, COPX resumed its uptrend. Since December, COPX has climbed relentlessly… reaching new all-time highs week after week after week. COPX climbed 15% in December 2025 and 29% in January.

As you can see in the chart below, COPX suffered a sharp selloff during the height of Operation Epic Fury. Given the strong demand drivers behind copper, I expect it to recover and reach new highs soon.

How to invest in the booming Power Grid Upgrade theme

On March 10, I highlighted Quanta Services’ (PWR) new all-time highs as evidence that the Power Grid Upgrade theme is a rewarding place for investment capital.

Quanta is America’s largest electrical grid contractor. It performs a wide range of work to build and maintain electric transmission lines, substations, and grid connections. It’s a big beneficiary of AI’s soaring power demand.

On October 7, 2025, we detailed how the world’s largest companies are making the biggest business “bet” in history. Giants like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and OpenAI are spending hundreds of billions of dollars per year on data centers, AI chips, and other infrastructure components. Their total investment in this space will run into the trillions.

All that AI infrastructure is poised to consume huge amounts of electricity. Goldman Sachs forecasts global data center power demand will climb 50% by 2027 and as much as 165% by the end of the decade.

This is creating a big investment opportunity.

The U.S. power grid is often called the world’s largest machine. It’s a giant network of power stations, transmission lines, substations, and underground wires. Most people barely know it’s there or how it works, but without this big machine, your lights don’t turn on, there’s no Netflix, and your iPhone doesn’t charge.

Industry experts say the power grid is aging and creaking under the strain of increased electricity demand. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the energy sector a D+ in its 2025 report, citing concerns about rising energy demand, aging infrastructure, and a lack of transmission capacity.

All in all, soaring electricity demand… a grid badly in need of an upgrade… AI supremacy on the line… trillions of dollars of economic output on the line…

This is a recipe for a bull market in the companies that build, repair, and upgrade our power grid.

It’s why stocks such as Quanta (PWR) gained 140% in the last year, and Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR) gained 82%.

One company operating inside this theme that has not enjoyed a big run yet – but could soon – is Itron (ITRI).

Itron is a $4 billion “smart grid infrastructure” firm. It makes smart meters, grid-edge devices, and software that give utilities real-time visibility into their networks. It’s one of the largest players in this niche of the electric power industry.

What Itron does is important because power grids need to be upgraded in two ways:

1. New power plants, new transmission lines, and new distribution infrastructure. This is where companies like Quanta come in.

2. More and better monitoring and management technology that allows power providers to squeeze more capacity out of what they already have. This is where Itron comes in.

In addition to selling specialized hardware, Itron is now layering AI on top of its current offering through partnerships with Nvidia, Microsoft, Snowflake, and Amazon. Through its software and analytics alone, Itron’s solutions can cut power outages by 10% and lift effective capacity by 20%, according to some estimates.

Building new power plants and transmission lines is important, but it will take years. Smarter grid management can help now. This is why Itron’s business is picking up to the point that its Quantum Fundamental rating in our corporate partner TradeSmith’s system is an outstanding 90 out of 100. This indicates market-leading revenue and earnings growth.

Big Tech is spending over $600 billion this year on AI infrastructure. More than a trillion is coming after that. This means the Power Grid Upgrade theme is poised to generate winners for years. Itron will likely be one of them.

Market Notes

• The semiconductor supply chain remains strong. Leading memory players Micron (MU) and Sandisk (SNDK) reached new all-time highs again while optics leaders Lumentum (LITE) and Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) are up 12% and 8% today.

• Our September 29th recommendation to own oil stocks is paying off like a broken slot machine. Oil giant Devon Energy (DVN) reached another all-time high today. It’s already up 26% YTD. US Brent Oil ETF (BNO) also just hit a new one-year high.

• South Korean e-commerce leader Coupang (CPNG) just hit a new one-month high.

• Premium athletic apparel leader Lululemon (LULU) just hit a new one-year low. It ’s now down 49% in the last year.

Regards,

Brian Hunt
Editor, Money & Megatrends

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