{"id":59104,"date":"2026-02-25T10:38:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/us-markets-rise-as-southern-co-secures-historic-26-5b-loan-and-trump-sheinbaum-hold-high-level-call\/59104\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T10:38:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:38:28","slug":"us-markets-rise-as-southern-co-secures-historic-26-5b-loan-and-trump-sheinbaum-hold-high-level-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/us-markets-rise-as-southern-co-secures-historic-26-5b-loan-and-trump-sheinbaum-hold-high-level-call\/59104\/","title":{"rendered":"US Markets Rise as Southern Co Secures Historic $26.5B Loan and Trump-Sheinbaum Hold High-Level Call"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Major US indices opened higher<\/strong> on Wednesday, with the <strong>Nasdaq<\/strong> leading gains at <strong>0.66%<\/strong> to reach <strong>23,014.39<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Southern Co (<a href=\"\/stock\/SO\">SO<\/a>)<\/strong> finalized a massive <strong>$26.5 billion<\/strong> loan package from the <strong>US Department of Energy<\/strong> to bolster grid reliability.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum<\/strong> held a diplomatic call with <strong>US President Donald <a href=\"https:\/\/thestockmarketwatch.com\/live\/trump-stock-market\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Trump\">Trump<\/a><\/strong> to discuss the current state of affairs in Mexico.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dell Technologies (<a href=\"\/stock\/DELL\">DELL<\/a>)<\/strong> expanded its AI infrastructure footprint with the launch of the <strong>PowerEdge XR9700<\/strong> server for Edge AI.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A significant cybersecurity breach<\/strong> involving <strong>Anthropic\u2019s Claude AI<\/strong> resulted in the theft of <strong>150GB<\/strong> of sensitive Mexican government data.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>US equity markets started Wednesday\u2019s session with broad-based gains as investors processed a flurry of geopolitical and corporate developments. The <strong>Nasdaq Composite<\/strong> climbed <strong>150.71 points (0.66%)<\/strong> to <strong>23,014.39<\/strong>, while the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/markets\/dowjones\/today.aspx\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Dow Jones Today\">Dow Jones<\/a> Industrial Average<\/strong> rose <strong>229.62 points (0.47%)<\/strong> to <strong>49,404.12<\/strong>. The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/markets\/sp500\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"snp500 today\">S&amp;P 500<\/a><\/strong> also trended upward, gaining <strong>32.41 points (0.47%)<\/strong> to sit at <strong>6,922.48<\/strong> shortly after the opening bell.<\/p>\n<p>In a major move for the energy sector, the <strong>US Department of Energy<\/strong> closed a historic <strong>$26.5 billion<\/strong> loan package for subsidiaries of <strong>Southern Co (<a href=\"\/stock\/SO\">SO<\/a>)<\/strong>. The funding is earmarked for <strong>Georgia Power<\/strong> and <strong>Alabama Power<\/strong> to enhance grid reliability and support massive infrastructure upgrades. <em>Analysts view this as a pivotal investment in domestic energy security and a significant boost for the utility giant&#39;s long-term capital expenditure plans.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Geopolitical focus shifted to North American relations as <strong>Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum<\/strong> confirmed a phone call with <strong>US President Donald <a href=\"https:\/\/thestockmarketwatch.com\/live\/trump-stock-market\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Trump\">Trump<\/a><\/strong>. The discussion, aimed at assessing &quot;how things were in Mexico,&quot; comes amid ongoing negotiations regarding trade and border security. <em>The cordial tone of the call suggests a continued effort toward bilateral cooperation despite recent tensions over tariffs and migration.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On the technology front, <strong>Dell Technologies (<a href=\"\/stock\/DELL\">DELL<\/a>)<\/strong> unveiled its new <strong>PowerEdge XR9700<\/strong> server, specifically designed for <strong>Cloud RAN<\/strong> and <strong>Edge AI<\/strong> applications. The ruggedized, liquid-cooled server is built to operate in harsh outdoor environments, targeting the growing demand for AI compute at the network edge. This launch reinforces <strong>Dell&#39;s<\/strong> strategy to capture market share in the telecommunications and industrial AI sectors.<\/p>\n<p>However, the tech sector also faced news of a sophisticated cyberattack where a hacker utilized <strong>Anthropic\u2019s Claude<\/strong> chatbot to breach Mexican government systems. According to researchers at <strong>Gambit Security<\/strong>, the attacker exfiltrated <strong>150GB<\/strong> of sensitive data, including <strong>taxpayer and voter records<\/strong>. <em>This incident highlights the emerging risks of AI-orchestrated espionage and the potential for generative AI tools to be weaponized against critical government infrastructure.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways Major US indices opened higher on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq leading gains at 0.66% to reach 23,014.39. Southern [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[248,4107,5040,6288,9169,10812,17654],"class_list":["post-59104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-dell","tag-so","tag-mexico","tag-us-markets","tag-dell-technologies","tag-ai-security","tag-southern-co"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}