USA Rare Earth Rallies, GameStop Gets Boost, Health Insurers Drop

On this episode of Stock Movers:

- USA Rare Earth (USAR) signed a non-binding agreement with the Commerce Department for $1.6 billion in funding, the latest White House deal to boost production of rare-earth elements on domestic soil. The pact — which comes alongside $1.5 billion in private-sector investment — will support the company’s spending on rare-earths mining, processing, metal-making and magnet manufacturing, the Oklahoma-based company said in a statement. USA Rare Earth is one of several companies pursuing what would be the first new US rare-earths mines in decades, if they’re completed. Shares of USA Rare Earth rose as much as 29% on Monday.

- GameStop (GME) rallied on Monday after Michael Burry, the money manager made famous by The Big Short, wrote that he has been buying the stock. In a post on Substack, Burry expressed his confidence in the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, Ryan Cohen, who has tried a number of strategies to confront the challenges facing GameStop’s network of physical stores as online gaming becomes more popular. GameStop soared to enormous gains back in 2021 and became the iconic meme stock after Cohen initially took a big stake in the company. Burry was also an investor at the time, but he later said that he had sold the stock before its dramatic ascent. The company has been lagging the broader market over the last year and is far below the pandemic-era peak.

- Shares of major US insurers, like UnitedHealth Group (UNH) and CVS (CVS) tumbled after the US proposed holding payments to private Medicare plans flat next year, a huge disappointment for investors. Shares of UnitedHealth Group Inc. fell as much as 9.3% in afterhours trading in New York Monday, while CVS Health Corp. dropped as much as 10% and Humana Inc. sank more than 15%. Medicare Advantage payment rates will rise by just 0.09% in 2027, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a release. Analysts had been expecting an increase as high as 6%.

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