On October 10, U.S. rare earth stocks rose after President Donald Trump accused China of strict export controls and once again threatened a “massive increase in tariffs on Chinese products.” However, these comments ended up triggering a market sell-off.
At issue, according to CNBC: China has imposed stricter export controls on critical rare earth minerals on which the American technology industry depends for electronics, robotics and electric vehicles; minerals are also essential to the U.S. defense industry. The news network reported that China will now require foreign entities to obtain a license to export products containing rare earth elements worth 0.1% or more of the value of the goods.
“I will be obligated, as President of the United States of America, to financially counter their decision,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “Many other countermeasures are also being seriously considered. »
Stock market effect
After Trump announced plans to raise tariffs on Beijing, a number of rare earth stocks rose: USA Rare Earth jumped 19%, Energy Fuels rose 10% and MP Materials gained 15%, CNBC reported.
Ultimately, these stocks had given back some of those gains, with USA Rare Earth up just 6% and Energy Fuels up just 4%; MP Materials maintains its position up 10%.
On the other hand, the global cryptocurrency market lost almost $125 billion in a few hours. The total global crypto market cap stood at $4.05 trillion, down 3.94% over the past 24 hours, a change of 83.68% from a year ago.
The market capitalization of Bitcoin (BTC) stood at $2.32 trillion, representing Bitcoin dominance of 57.23%. At the same time, the market capitalization of stablecoins stood at $310 billion, representing a 7.66% share of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.
The selloff quickly spread to the stock market: The S&P 500 lost 2.71%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day down 878.82 points (1.9%), and the Nasdaq Composite fell 3.56%, CNBC reported. That selloff included Nvidia (NVDA), down nearly 5% at market close.
