Trump Trade: China issues rebuttal to U.S. calls to pull rare earth controls

Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

RARE EARTH: Chinese state media issued a seven-point rebuttal to U.S. calls for Beijing to pull back on its rare earth controls, Reuters reports. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer recently said the new rare earth export restrictions were “a global supply-chain power grab,” and said the country could prevent President Donald Trump’s threat to reimpose triple-digit tariffs by shelving the measures. Beijing maintains it notified Washington before the announcement and that the controls are consistent with measures in place in other major economies. The Fly notes that companies involved in the development and mining of rare earth minerals include Nova Minerals (NVA), Ioneer (IONR), Lynas Rare Earths (LYSCF), MP Materials (MP), Energy Fuels (UUUU), NioCorp (NB) and VanEck Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF (REMX).

DEFENSE STOCKS: Shares of several defense names, including Lockheed Martin (LMT), RTX Corp. (RTX), General Dynamics (GD), Northrop Grumman (NOC), Boeing (BA), Kratos Defense (KTOS), and AeroVironment (AVAV), were sliding on Wednesday after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. is considering asking defense companies to do less buybacks. “I do think our defense companies are woefully behind in terms of deliveries. So, we may have to – as their biggest customer – may have to prod them to do a little more research, do a little few stock buybacks, which is really what got Boeing into trouble,” Bessent said during an interview with CNBC.

TARIFF CHEATING: Federal officials found no widespread undervaluing of imported appliances, concluding data-entry errors caused value discrepancies, The Wall Street Journal’s John Keilman reports. Whirlpool (WHR) accused rivals of possible tariff evasion, citing import data showing appliance values plummeted starting in June. Whirlpool’s rivals include Samsung (SSNLF) and LG Electronics.

U.S. STRATEGIC MINERAL RESERVE: Volato (SOAR) and M2i Global announced the next phase of development of the digital and commercial infrastructure underpinning the U.S. Strategic Mineral Reserve. M2i initiated the SMR framework and technical specifications earlier this year. Volato is now applying its enterprise-software expertise to build and operationalize the secure technology backbone that will support critical mineral traceability, contracting, and compliance across the United States and allied nations. This infrastructure is being developed to serve as the market-facing layer of the U.S. Strategic Mineral Reserve initiative, providing miners, refiners, recyclers, manufacturers, and government entities with a trusted environment for physical critical mineral transactions-with verified provenance, end-to-end custody visibility, and regulatory compliance at its core.