【China Discovers a Super-Large-Scale Rare Earth Ore in Yunnan, with Over 470,000 mt of Key Rare Earth Elements Including Pr-Nd, Dysprosium, and Terbium】According to MiningWeekly, Australian Stock Exchange-listed company American Rare Earths (ARR) announced that its wholly-owned US subsidiary, Wyoming Rare (WRI), has been granted permission to conduct trial mining at the Halleck Creek rare earth mine.

On Friday (April 11), US stocks opened lower but quickly turned positive, with all three major indices closing higher, led by the Nasdaq, which rose over 2%. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.56% to 40,212.71, the S&P 500 rose 1.81% to 5,363.36, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.06% to 16,724.46. Among the 30 Dow components, only four stocks closed lower: Disney, Salesforce, Nike, and Travelers (TRV), while Apple, JPMorgan Chase, and NVIDIA led the gains. In the S&P 500, the ratio of advancing to declining stocks was approximately 7:1. This week was arguably one of the most volatile in Wall Street history. The S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX), known as the "fear gauge," briefly surged above 60, its highest level since August of last year, before pulling back to around 37 by Friday. On a weekly basis, the S&P 500 rose 5.7%, its best weekly performance since November 2023; the Dow gained 4.95%, and the Nasdaq surged 7.29%. Most of these gains came from Wednesday's rebound, when the Nasdaq soared over 12%. Darrell Cronk, president of Wells Fargo Investment Institute, wrote in a report: "We are still in the early stages of a global trade regime shift. While the '90-day tariff pause' reversed the market sell-off, it only delayed the uncertainty." Mark Hackett, an executive at Nationwide, said, "Market sentiment remains bumpy. Against the backdrop of unresolved trade tensions, earnings uncertainty, and macro headwinds, the market is still searching for a foothold." Hackett believes, "While this week's gains in US stocks are encouraging, they should not be mistaken for a clear turning point." Hot Stock Performance Most major tech stocks rose (ranked by market cap): Apple gained 4.06%, Microsoft rose 1.86%, NVIDIA climbed 3.12%, Amazon increased 2.01%, Google (Class C) advanced 2.59%, Meta fell 0.5%, Broadcom surged 5.59%, and Tesla dipped 0.04%. Among Chinese stocks, the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index rose 1.73% but fell 5.3% for the week. Most popular Chinese stocks closed higher: Zai Lab surged 21.46%, Kingsoft Cloud jumped 12.41%, XPeng Motors rose 11.3%, NIO gained 7.32%, Baidu climbed 5.43%, Li Auto increased 4.4%, Alibaba advanced 3.41%, Pinduoduo rose 2.43%, JD.com gained 2.36%, and New Oriental edged up 1.08%. Tencent Music fell 2.08%, and TAL Education dropped 3.61%. Company News [Tesla Halts Sales of US-Made Model S and X in China] Tesla's China website shows that the Model S/X no longer offers a standalone "Order New Car" option. The corresponding model pages now only display a "View Inventory" button, which leads to a list of available cars. This means consumers can no longer directly customize new cars for these models through the website and can only choose from inventory or used cars. This adjustment coincides with a critical period of escalating tariffs under Trump. It is reported that both models are produced at Tesla's US factory. [Stellantis Q1 Shipments Expected at Around 1.2 Million Units, Down 9% YoY] On April 11, Stellantis Group released its Q1 global shipment forecast, excluding joint ventures. As of March 31, 2025, shipments are expected to be around 1.2 million units, down 9% YoY. This is mainly due to extended shutdowns in North America caused by the long holiday in January, leading to a decline in production in the region, as well as the impact of product transitions and declining light commercial vehicle sales in Europe. [Sources Say White House's Early Budget Plan Proposes Significant Cuts to NASA Science Funding] Two sources revealed that, according to the initial draft of President Trump's budget proposal submitted to Congress, NASA's science budget could be cut by nearly half, terminating ongoing and future missions worth billions of dollars. The sources said the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plans to allocate $3.9 billion to NASA's Science Mission Directorate, down from the current $7.3 billion. NASA's astrophysics budget would be hit hard, dropping from around $1.5 billion to $487 million, while planetary science would fall from $2.7 billion to $1.9 billion. Under the proposal, the Hubble and Webb space telescopes would continue to receive support, while other telescopes would not be funded.

[Major Change! China Northern Rare Earth Cancels Listing Prices and Adopts Real-Time Quotes from the Rare Earth Exchange. Is the "Baotou Index" for Rare Earth Price Trading on the Agenda?] ① Starting from January 2025, China Northern Rare Earth will no longer release listing prices, and future long-term contract prices will adopt real-time quotes from the Rare Earth Exchange; ② The Rare Earth Exchange will step in to collect prices, leading to a "major reshuffle" in the structure of rare earth price quoting entities, and subsequent related transaction prices for rare earth ore may also change; ③ The deeper reason behind China Northern Rare Earth's adoption of Rare Earth Exchange quotes lies in the creation of the "Baotou Index" for rare earth price trading. (Cailian Press)

Introduction: Starting from last Friday, the market began to receive news of the relaxation of Indonesia's RKAB approvals. This news began to spread widely in the market this week. Although the news has not yet been officially confirmed, it has already affected market sentiment and the trend of nickel prices to a certain extent. It is worth noting that this week coincides with the month-end, a period when Indonesian smelters and local nickel ore mines negotiate the nickel ore premiums for June. According to SMM, the news of "RKAB approval relaxation" has not led to a significant easing or decline in the prices of Indonesia's local ore. The mainstream premium for Indonesia's local pyrometallurgy ore in June is likely to remain stable compared to May. This may also indicate, from a side perspective, that currently, there has been no structural change in the supply and demand situation of Indonesia's local domestic trade nickel ore, and the tight supply of nickel ore has not shown significant improvement. Recently, SMM inquired with ESDM about such issues, and an official from ESDM stated that no large-scale approvals for supplementary quotas have been granted in the past two weeks.