tumbling

Markets may be nudging slightly higher today, offering investors the hope of ending the week on a positive note, but the same can’t be said for rare earth stock USA Rare Earth (USAR -3.85%). While the company hasn’t reported anything negative, news related to a rare earth peer has USA Rare Earth investors heading for the exits.

As of 2:44 p.m. ET, shares of USA Rare Earth are down 3.5%, recovering from their earlier decline of 10%.

Image source: Getty Images.

Rare earth businesses in the U.S. are growing, and USA Rare Earth investors aren’t happy

Thanks to its holding in ReElement Technologies, American Resources (AREC) announced a 141% expansion of its critical mineral refining facility located in Indiana. With the expansion, the company now has near-term annual refining capacity of over 200 metric tons of ultrapure separated defense elements and rare earth oxides of 99.9% to 99.999% purity.

Nearing completion of its rare earth magnet production facility, USA Rare Earth has emerged as one of the key players among those involved in rare earth elements production. The company has drawn considerable interest from investors over the past year as President Trump has issued executive orders addressing a commitment to shoring up the domestic supply of rare earths.

Is now as good time to dig into USA Rare Earth stock?

Instead of digging deeply into the news from American Resources, investors in USA Rare Earth likely responded to the news with a knee-jerk reaction and trimmed their positions, surmising that the growth prospects of USA Rare Earth is now impeded. For USA Rare Earth shareholders, though, today’s announcement shouldn’t do much to sway them that the bull case is broken.

Of course, there are plenty of risks that remain for USA Rare Earth with the construction of its magnet production facility, and the company’s success is far from guaranteed. But if you were optimistic about the prospects of USA Rare Earth yesterday, nothing has changed. In fact, today’s pullback provides a great chance to build your position even further.

On a day when artificial intelligence (AI) stocks were broadly moving higher, The Trade Desk (TTD -12.02%) was down double digits. The leading adtech company got dinged by news that Netflix had integrated with Amazon’s DSP. A downgrade from Morgan Stanley was also weighing on the stock.

As of 3:09 p.m. ET, the stock was down 12.1% on the news.

Image source: Getty Images.

The Trade Desk’s troubles continue

The Trade Desk has been the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year as growth has slowed in the face of competition from Amazon and other platforms, so the news that Amazon and Netflix are teaming up only exacerbated existing concerns.

The partnership will allow advertisers using Amazon’s DSP to get direct access to Netflix’s ad inventory in several major markets around the world. The partnership will begin in the fourth quarter.

The deal has implications for The Trade Desk because it will make Amazon’s DSP more attractive for advertisers, especially as Netflix’s ad tier is rapidly growing. It also strengthens the so-called “walled gardens” that The Trade Desk is competing with, referring to complete ad ecosystems that big companies like Alphabet and Meta Platforms use. The alliance between Netflix and Amazon essentially represents two walled gardens teaming up.

Additionally, Morgan Stanley lowered its rating to equal weight from overweight and slashed its price target on the stock from $80 to $50. The investment bank said it was wrong about the durability of The Trade Desk’s growth and noted “mounting headwinds” this year.

Can The Trade Desk recover?

For years, The Trade Desk could do little wrong, and the stock marched higher as the adtech company delivered outstanding results quarter over quarter. However, The Trade Desk stock has tumbled in two of its last three earnings reports now as its growth is slowing, and management’s efforts to reassure investors have fallen flat.

Amazon may now be the company’s biggest rival in connected TV as it signed a deal with Roku earlier this year, and its DSP now works with every major streaming service.

Whether that leads to advertisers dropping the service remains to be seen, but it does seem to limit its growth opportunity. The Trade Desk is already integrated with Netflix, but the deal is still likely to put pressure on it.

The Trade Desk’s valuation has proven to be a vulnerability during the sell-off this year, and while the price is certainly more reasonable after this year’s sell-off, the company will have to prove that its growth rate won’t continue to compress.

The result was historic. The way it happened was all too familiar.

Never before, since interleague play began in 1997, had the Dodgers been swept in a six-game season series against the Angels.

But plenty of times in recent weeks had they suffered the kind of fate that befell them Wednesday.

Entering the eighth inning, the team was leading by one run. Without many trustworthy options in a recently scuffling bullpen, however, manager Dave Roberts had few cards to play from his deck.

First, he sent left-hander Justin Wrobleski out for a third inning of work. When he walked the first two batters, Roberts turned to right-hander Edgardo Henriquez, who had pitched multiple innings the night before.

You can probably guess what happened next.

Despite perfectly defending a sacrifice bunt to get the lead runner at third, the Dodgers again failed to escape a late-game threat. With one out, Jo Adell hit what looked like a possible double-play grounder — only for Henriquez to deflect the ball on an ill-advised fielding attempt and send it rolling away for an infield single.

Two batters later, Logan O’Hoppe roped a go-ahead, two-out base hit into center.

Another lead had been squandered by the bullpen. Another loss — the Dodgers’ fourth straight, and 21st in their last 33 games — had been all but cemented.

With a 6-5 defeat, the Dodgers were swept for the second time this season by the Angels. They also fell out of first place in the National League West for the first time since April.

It was yet another day they could only shake their head.

Wednesday was supposed to be about Shohei Ohtani, who was making his first pitching start as a visitor at his old home ballpark at Angel Stadium.

It was also Ohtani’s first full-length outing since returning from a second career Tommy John surgery earlier this year. But even the two-way star could only conjure so much magic.

After building up inning by inning since his return to pitching, Ohtani’s leash was extended into the fifth for the first time this season — a target length the Dodgers don’t plan on having him surpass at least until the playoffs.

“He’s just such a valuable player to us offensively, as a pitcher,” Roberts said. “So to push for an extra inning, or call it five extra innings in totality, it’s just not worth it. There’s just way too much downside.”

And by the time Ohtani took the mound for the first time, he’d already helped the Dodgers take an early lead, beginning the game with a scorching line-drive triple before Mookie Betts singled him home and Will Smith went deep to make a three-run first inning.

The two-way star gave up two runs in the second, one on a Taylor Ward home run, then another after Yoán Moncada doubled and came around to score on a sacrifice fly, but the Dodgers restored their three-run advantage with a two-run rally in the fourth; one that featured three walks (including one from Ohtani and a run-scoring free pass from Smith) and an RBI single from Betts (who extended his hitting streak to eight games, five of which have been multi-hit efforts).

Ohtani’s first foray into the fifth inning didn’t go smoothly. O’Hoppe and Bryce Teodosio hit consecutive one-out singles. Zach Neto laced a two-run double into the left-field corner that kicked away from Alex Call. And with his pitch count up to a season-high of 80, Roberts went to get him before he could qualify for the win.

Reliever Anthony Banda escaped the inning without further damage. Ohtani’s final line was 4 1/3 innings, four runs, five hits and seven strikeouts (two of them against former Angels co-star Mike Trout). His season ERA is now 3.47. He has 32 strikeouts in 23⅔ innings.

And for a while, it appeared the score would remain that way — until yet another late-game collapse sent the Dodgers to another maddening setback.

AN influencer and extreme sports enthusiast died after “tumbling through the air” in a 60ft plunge off a British mountain

Maria Eftimova, 28, went hiking up the 3,000ft peak before slipping on rocky ground and tumbling down the mountain to her death.

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Maria suffered fatal head injuries and, despite the best efforts of medical staff, was tragically pronounced dead at the scene.

The influencer, with more than 10,000 followers, was tackling the notorious Tryfan mountain in Snowdonia, North Wales, when she fell to her death.

An inquest into her death heard she was climbing the mountain’s notorious north ridge – a popular but dangerous scrambling route.

Maria was an experienced mountaineer and had completed an ice-climbing course in Norway shortly before the horror unfolded.

The inquest has heard how she posed for a “Mexican wave” with friends before she fell to her death.

Fellow climber Harry Jones said the group were going up the face one-by-one when he witnessed Maria’s tragic fall.

He added: “I could see on one particular ledge Maria stopped in order to get a handhold to pull herself up, I was six ft below her, to the left.

“She swung her right leg up to pull herself up. I asked ‘Got it well?’ and she said ‘I think so.”

He said moments later he witnessed Maria “flying over me” and down the mountainside.

The 60ft plummet left Maria with horrific injuries, including a fractured skull..

Coroner Kate Robertson returned a conclusion of accidental death and passed on her condolences to Maria’s family and friends.

Maria, of St Helens, originally from Sofia, Bulgaria, showcased her outdoor lifestyle online.

Following her tragic death a fundraiser was set up by friends to help cover repatriation costs.

Maria’s tragic death on February 22nd came less than a week after Dr Charlotte Crook, 30, also died while climbing in the same region.

An inquest heard Dr Crook plunged 30ft to her death while walking on Glyder Fach with a fellow medic.

Both women were attended to by Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation.

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Speaking of Maria’s accident, the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue team said: “A group was ascending the north-ridge when one of them fell 20 metres into steep terrain.

“Passers-by with climbing equipment abseiled down and made her safe, and a team member already nearby made his way down and started CPR.

“Colleagues from Welsh Ambulance Service stood by at base while the Coastguard helicopter dropped team members onto the mountain.

“Unfortunately, the casualty had not survived her injuries, and she was brought down to Oggie base.

“The thoughts of all involved are with the casualties families and friends, thank you to all the members of the public who tried to help.”

Neil Oakes, who was on a slightly different route up the mountain at the time Maria fell, told of his horror at witnessing the tragedy unfold.

He said: “I turned and saw Ms Eftimova tumbling through the air below me. She was already in freefall.

“I knew there was going to be an impact on the rocky outcrop below so I turned away for a split second. I was shouting ‘No, no, no, no.’

“When I turned back she was on the ledge below. I knew that it was serious.

“I said ‘She’s gone. She’s fallen.’ I was in shock.”