Our country's scientists rely on a group of materials most folks never think about. But you might have heard them mentioned in the news recently... I'm talking about rare earth elements.

America's Big Problem With a Critical Type of Material By Ethan Goldman, junior analyst, Chaikin Analytics Our country's scientists rely on a group of materials most folks never think about. But you might have heard them mentioned in the news recently... I'm talking about rare earth elements. These metals and materials are critical for America's scientific and military power. The military uses magnets made from rare earths in everything from F-35 fighter jets to Tomahawk missiles. And rare earths are in everyday things we use – like electric vehicles, smartphones, and TVs.  Now, what we call a "rare earth element" is a misnomer... The term "rare" refers to the fact that while we can often find these materials in nature, the process that we need to make them usable is expensive... and often difficult. Even though rare earth elements are abundant, researchers don't have a solid way to predict where the next deposit will be located. This further complicates things because we struggle to know where to even look for these resources. Meanwhile, America has a specific problem when it comes to rare earth materials. And it adds yet another wrinkle to the trade war... Recommended Links: Here's What You Missed Last Night Two former government consultants just stepped forward to detail a buried stock market story all centering around DOGE's controversial next move. If you have ANY money in the market... or on the sidelines... it's critical you get yourself up to speed immediately on what's likely happening behind the scenes in our nation's capital. Click here to watch and learn how to position your money. What the Heck Is 'Amazon Helios?' Jeff Bezos' Amazon has conquered retail, logistics, cloud computing, and media. And now an investor CNBC has dubbed "the prophet" is predicting that what he calls "Helios" could mark Bezos' next major milestone – and change society forever. Find out what "Helios" is and the best way to play it right here. America Doesn't Produce Enough Rare Earths You see, most rare earth deposits that we know of are outside the U.S. And China has a monopoly on the global market for these materials. The country produces roughly 60% of the rare earth elements... and it processes about 90% of them. That roughly 30% discrepancy comes from other countries' mining but not processing their own rare earth elements. Again, it's difficult to make these materials usable after mining them. Here in the U.S., we have a single mine producing rare earth elements. The Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine in California taps into the largest known deposit of rare earth elements globally. But it simply doesn't provide the U.S. with the amount of production to meet demand. And America only has 1.9 million metric tons of rare earth reserves. That seems like a big number... but not when compared with a staggering 44 million metric tons in China and 3.8 million metric tons in Russia. I'll note that Russia's rare earth reserves did drop from 10 million metric tons in 2023 to that figure of 3.8 million metric tons last year. That drop shows just how fast war can use up these resources. And now, as you might have heard in the news, the rare earth issue has come to a head amid the tit-for-tat tariff escalation... On April 4, China slapped export restrictions on seven out of the 17 rare earth elements our country imports. It's not the first time we've seen export restrictions from China on materials. But this exact restriction is a direct result of the tariffs from the Trump administration. And America isn't prepared to pick up the slack anytime soon... Even if we do find more rare earth element deposits here, it could take 10 to 20 years just to establish production. This looming crisis may not seem that scary right now. Rare earths don't get the media attention like gold, iron, or copper do. And heck, the complex names of these materials might make it hard for plenty of folks to take them seriously. But the rare earths are critical to our global military and economic power. If we can't get enough of them to meet demand, that will harm future growth. So amid the economic uncertainty, make sure to pay attention to what's happening with these materials. Good investing, Ethan Goldman Market View Major Indexes and Notable Sectors     # Hld:     Bullish     Neutral     Bearish Dow 30 +1.28% 2 20 8 S&P 500 +2.1% 52 290 162 Nasdaq +2.81% 10 59 31 Small Caps +2.0% 209 1167 515 Bonds +1.05% Information Technology +3.73% 3 44 22 — According to the Chaikin Power Bar, Small Cap stocks and Large Cap stocks remain Bearish. Major indexes are all bearish. *  *  *  * Sector Tracker Sector movement over the last 5 days Information Technology +6.52% Consumer Discretionary +4.7% Communication +3.95% Financial +3.43% Materials +3.08% Industrials +2.97% Health Care +1.4% Energy +1.28% Utilities +0.87% Real Estate +0.35% Consumer Staples -1.0% *  *  *  * Top Movers Gainers NOW +15.49% HAS +14.58% MCHP +12.38% ALLE +10.32% RMD +10.1% Losers FI -18.52% LKQ -11.56% TYL -6.81% POOL -6.66% IBM -6.58% *  *  *  * Earnings Report Earnings Surprises DOW Dow Inc. Q1 $0.02 Beat by $0.03 VLO Valero Energy Corporation Q1 $0.89 Beat by $0.48 DLR Digital Realty Trust, Inc. Q1 $0.38 Beat by $0.14 GOOGL Alphabet Inc. Q1 $2.81 Beat by $0.80 BMY Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Q1 $1.80 Beat by $0.30 *  *  *  * You have received this e-mail as part of your subscription to PowerFeed. If you no longer want to receive e-mails from PowerFeed, click here. You're receiving this e-mail at indra21poetra@gmail.com. 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