Ryan Dezember

Lumber producer Weyerhaeuser says it has struck deals to install solar panels over more than 100,000 acres in 11 states, positioning the country's largest private landowner to become a big player in the fastest-growing source of electricity generation in the U.S. Solar power generation is forecast to increase by a record this year and make another jump next year, to about 75% more than in 2023, the Energy Information Administration estimates. A lot of the new solar panels are being installed on cutover timberland. Weyerhaeuser has several projects in late stages of development.

Builders FirstSource, one of the hottest stocks of the past year, is getting hammered after reporting a 22.5% decline in first-quarter profit, a sign that high borrowing costs are beginning to slow residential construction. + Shares of the building products supplier have stood out among chip makers and tech firms atop the S&P 500 despite the highest interest rates in a generation. JELD-WEN Holding shares are faring even worse after the window and door maker swung to a quarterly loss and cut its financial outlook.

Trex is building a factory in Arkansas to boost its manufacturing capacity, and it is rolling out new lines of premium decking.

Demand for big areas to install solar-power plants is enriching Southern pine growers, who have struggled for years with low prices for logs. An acre of Southern timberland worth $2,000 to $3,000 growing pine trees to make cardboard and lumber can fetch up to ten times that much leased to a solar developer, Rayonier Chief Executive Mark McHugh told investors at the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts conference in New York. "Increasingly, we've come to see ourselves as not just a timber company, but really more of a land resources company," McHugh said.

Bad weather has dampened demand for a lot of building products and construction materials this spring, but all the hail and wind has lifted the prospects for firms that sell roofing. Analysts had been expecting roofing sales to come down after all of last year's storms.

Shares of companies that make and distribute building products are leading the market higher after data showing easing inflation improved the odds of interest rate cuts this year. The bet is that borrowing costs will lead not just to more home construction and sales, but also entice Americans to tap into the tens of trillions of dollars in home equity they've accrued thanks to rising property values to pay for renovations.

GAS MARKETS Summer is off to a sizzling start, which means higher electricity bills are on their way. The Energy Information Administration expects the U.S. average monthly residential power bill to rise to $173 in June, July and August, up 3% from last summer.

Sawmill closures haven’t stopped wood prices from falling to postpandemic lows, a warning sign that residential construction and home-improvement markets are buckling.

Investors and central bankers will get the next read on inflation on Thursday.

Builders FirstSource, among the S&P 500's top gainers today, and other companies that make, distribute and install construction materials languished in recent months, as investors lost confidence that borrowing costs would come down anytime soon.