Investopedia: Do Molycorp's Earnings Even Matter Right Now?

For the many years that I've been following and writing on stocks, I still manage to be surprised at how investors will react to certain bits of news. American rare earth producer Molycorp (NYSE:MCP) is just one example - talk after the company's earnings announcement was about how the company had missed estimates and how that was pressuring the stock.

Really?


At this point, revenue and earnings are all but irrelevant to the Molycorp story. That leads me to believe that events like earnings releases are more of an excuse and a liquidity opportunity for investors, and that ex-post facto explanations like missed estimates are missing the mark.

The Results
Molycorp announced that it sold 696 metric tons of rare earth oxides in the first quarter - 65% more than in the year-ago period and 9% more than in the fourth quarter. Realized prices were more than five times higher than in the year-ago period, and increased almost 11% on a sequential basis. With that, revenue soared relative to the year-ago period and rose more than 20% from the fourth quarter.

To read the full piece, please click the link below:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/Do-Molycorps-Earnings-Even-Matter-Right-Now-MCP-REMX-AVL-REE-FCX-VALE-LYSDY0513.aspx

Seeking Alpha: China's Rare Earth Policy Will Ultimately Fail (And What That Means For Metal Miners)

Let's not mince words – China's policy of choking off the world's access to rare earth metals will ultimately fail.

Although China has clearly created a tizzy in the markets because of its policy to slowly strangle its export quotas of rare earth metals, it would be more surprising if this move does not go down in the books alongside the Hunt brothers' attempt to corner the silver market and other market-cornering maneuvers. Maybe this is really not all that unexpected; after all, China is not necessarily up to date on all of the details about how free markets operate.

The Problem
As has been reported many times in many places, China happens to sit on top of a very large percentage of the world's rare earth elements. Actually, that's not really the story. China reportedly holds about 37% of the world's reserves but is responsible for about 97% of the world's supply because the central government kept supporting rare earth producers at a time when Western mining companies shut down their rare earth operations because of low prices.

Please click this link for the full piece:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/256890-china-s-rare-earth-policy-will-ultimately-fail-and-that-means-for-metal-miners?source=mc_all