CNBC Daily Open: The rare earths must flow, but only with Beijing’s permission

3 weeks ago 21

A dump motortruck moves earthy ore wrong the pit astatine the Mountain Pass mine, operated by MP Materials, successful Mountain Pass, California, U.S., connected Friday, June 7, 2019.

Joe Buglewicz | Bloomberg | Getty Images

In the 1984 subject fabrication movie Dune, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen uttered the celebrated punctuation that tin aptly beryllium utilized to picture uncommon world metals: "He who controls the spice, controls the universe."

The spice was cardinal to the Dune universe, allowing commercialized to flourish and planets to prosper. In the aforesaid way, uncommon world metals look to beryllium the spice today.

These metals are utilized successful astir each physics device, from smartphones and cars, to ballistic missiles. 

In a sweeping determination Thursday, China has tightened export rules connected these captious materials, asserting dominance implicit the planetary tech proviso chain.

The caller measures mean companies request to use for a licence from Beijing to export immoderate products containing Chinese-sourced uncommon world metals, portion companies tied to overseas militaries oregon placed connected export-control oregon ticker lists volition beryllium denied permits.

China accounts for astir 70% of the planetary supply and has repeatedly utilized captious minerals arsenic a bargaining spot successful commercialized discussions.

With a imaginable Trump-Xi gathering successful South Korea soon, Beijing whitethorn beryllium signalling its leverage up of high-stakes talks by tightening power implicit uncommon world exports, and sending a connection to the satellite that successful the contention for tech supremacy, it holds the precocious ground.

— CNBC's Anniek Bao contributed to this report.

What you request to cognize today

China tightens uncommon world exports... China has tightened export controls connected uncommon earths and related technologies portion barring its citizens from participating successful unauthorized mining overseas. The latest restrictions came conscionable weeks earlier a imaginable gathering betwixt U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. 

... sending uncommon world stocks surging. U.S. uncommon world and captious mineral miners surged Thursday aft China tightened restrictions connected exports, fueling marketplace speculation that the Trump medication volition determination much aggressively to put successful gathering retired a home proviso chain.

Ferrari hits the brakes. Shares of Ferrari posted their worst trading time ever Thursday aft the luxury carmaker's full-year and 2030 guidance fell abbreviated of expectations, and it scaled backmost its electrification ambitions.

Samsung and SK Hynix deed records. South Korean chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics climbed to grounds highs aft a near-weeklong holiday, boosted by a bid of artificial quality deals. In the U.S, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq took a breather from their each clip highs Thursday stateside, dipping 0.28% and 0.08%, respectively.

[PRO] Hedging a golden pullback. Gold's presumption arsenic a portfolio diversifier has travel into sharper absorption this week arsenic the precious metallic broke done the landmark $4,000 level. But could investors spot a pullback, and however should they navigate this if it happens?

And finally...

Pedestrians successful beforehand of a pawn store during Golden Week astatine nighttime successful Macau, China, connected Sunday, April 30, 2023.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

China’s Golden Week question roar masks a bruising terms war

The latest motion of hyper-competition, oregon "involution," has emerged successful China's tourism industry, adding to concerns about growing deflationary pressure in the broader economy.

Over the Oct. 1 to 8 nationalist vacation — dubbed "Golden Week" — full home tourism trips reached 888 cardinal and generated 809.01 cardinal yuan ($113.63 billion) in revenue, according to authoritative information released Thursday. That's up by 1.8% and 7.6% from past year, respectively, according to CNBC's calculations of the figures.

In fact, mean spending per home tourer travel during the Golden Week was besides astir 3% little than successful 2019 earlier the pandemic, Goldman Sachs pointed retired Thursday.

"The Golden Week was 'Golden Weak,'" said Mix Shi, laminitis of PoshPacker Hostels Chengdu Group.

— Evelyn Cheng

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