When MP Materials (MP -3.78%) stock reported earnings last month, shares of the rare earth metals miner popped 5% -- but another catalyst is moving MP stock even more today. MP Materials stock was up 8.7% through 9:50 a.m. ET.
MP reported a $0.12-per-share loss for Q4 back in February, better than the $0.13 loss that Wall Street forecast. The miner did $61 million in sales, too, $10 million more than anticipated, which was also good news.
The news investors like today, though, came straight from Capitol Hill, where President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress Tuesday and promised to "take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA." Investors got excited about this promise.
NYSE: MP
Key Data Points
MP Materials numbers
MP Materials is on kind of a roll right now. Although it's still losing money, the company achieved "record production of 45,455 metric tons of [rare earth oxides, or REO] in concentrate in 2024." The company's stage 2 operations further refined REO into 1,294 metric tons of pure neodymium-praseodymium, or NdPr, for use in magnets for electric car motors. And MP began "trial production" of its stage 3 operations, producing actual automotive-grade rare earth magnets.
Although revenue slumped nearly 20% for the year, MP's revenue surged 48% year over year in the final quarter of 2024.
Looking ahead as it ramps magnet production, MP signed supply agreements with an unnamed "major global automaker" and also with the U.S. Department of Defense. The company also received a $58.5 million tax credit from the government to accelerate its production ramp.
MP and POTUS
It's no wonder CEO James Litinsky called 2024 "a terrific year" for MP, and now it looks like 2025 might be even better.
In last night's address to Congress, Trump made only passing mention of rare earths, and didn't mention MP by name. Still, as America's biggest rare earths miner, and a recipient of one government subsidy already this year, it's logical to assume MP will benefit from new policy.
At least, that seems to be what investors are hoping.
