Rare earth stocks are Wall Street’s hottest trade right now, so much so that MP Materials’ stock traded more than JPMorgan yesterday
Rare earth stocks are having a blast at the moment. Small stocks in the critical and rare earth minerals sector — the latest flashpoint of US-China trade relations — have ripped, but the trade went into overdrive to start this week.
After JPMorgan announced a $10 billion plan to directly invest in key industries like critical minerals, the sector spiked again on Monday, as traders responded to the news and continued to bet on the US government’s ongoing support for the nascent sector. In the announcement, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s CEO, wrote that “the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products, and manufacturing.”
One name in particular, MP Materials, soared 21% yesterday, with an eye-watering $4.7 billion worth of the stock trading in a single session. Ironically, that’s even more than the $3.3 billion that changed hands in JPMorgan stock.
Still finding gold
Remarkably, the rare earth trade doesn’t seem to be losing any steam this morning.
As of 7 a.m. ET, MP Materials is up 5%. With risk-off sentiment dominating the premarket session — the US and China just rolled out their tit-for-tat port fees — the one winner from the trade tensions seems to still be the rare earth stocks. Indeed, other names in the industry are also trading higher, most notably United States Antimony Corp., Critical Metals, American Battery Technology Co., and USA Rare Earth.
