NEW YORK, May 18, 2026, 16:04 EDT
USA Rare Earth finished Monday with a 12.8% loss, ending the day at $21.28 and ticking down to $21.25 in after-hours trade as some investors moved out of the volatile rare-earth name. USAR started at $24.32, hit a low of $20.82, and saw about 17.8 million shares trade. The Nasdaq was down about 0.5%, while the S&P 500 stayed flat.
USA Rare Earth is now seen as a stand-in for Washington’s effort to build a rare-earth supply chain outside China, from mining all the way to finished magnets. Western deals in the sector have picked up, and USA Rare Earth is connected to over $3 billion in transactions including Serra Verde, Less Common Metals, as well as projects in Texas and Oklahoma.
Policy support is there, but the stock isn’t moving in a straight line. U.S. defense firms are pushing officials to push back a Jan. 1 ban on Chinese-made rare-earth magnets in military deals, the Financial Times reported Monday. Those magnets, like neodymium-iron-boron and samarium cobalt, show up in gear from fighter jets to smartphones.
USA Rare Earth posted first-quarter revenue of $5.7 million and ended the period with about $1.75 billion in cash. CEO Barbara Humpton described the quarter as a “period of fundamental transformation.” The company said its Serra Verde and Carester steps were part of efforts to “close the loop” on its value chain. Phase 1a of the Stillwater, Oklahoma magnet plant is expected to reach 600 metric tons a year by the end of the fourth quarter. The company projects Phase 1b could bring total output to 1,200 metric tons in the first quarter of 2027. USA Rare Earth
Rare-earth magnets, known for their strength, turn up in motors, planes, medical devices and factory gear. The sector’s “mine-to-magnet” label covers every stage, from getting the ore out of the ground to separation, refining to metal and alloy, through to the final magnet.
On the earnings call, Humpton said the customer environment is still tight. She called the “situation dire” if China holds back material when asked about safety stock levels and magnet demand. Humpton added that USA Rare Earth is looking for purchase orders to begin coming in during the second half of the year. The Motley Fool
USA Rare Earth said last week it got a $14.18 million Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund grant for its Round Top Mountain heavy rare-earth project in Hudspeth County. The company said the grant backs a plan expected to add about 260 jobs and bring over $1.4 billion of capital spending to West Texas.
Analysts are still backing the stock during the volatility. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted its price target to $35 from $30, sticking with an Overweight rating. Sam Brandeis at Wedbush also moved his target up to $35 from $29, holding his Outperform rating, StockAnalysis summaries of The Fly reports show.
MP Materials dropped 8.2% to $56.27 late Monday. The selling wasn’t limited to USA Rare Earth. MP, seen as a key U.S. rare-earth stock and a peer in the supply chain push, tracked the slide.
But the risks are still clear. USA Rare Earth said in its quarterly filing that its Stillwater magnet plant is newly commissioned and has not started commercial output or sales of sintered NdFeB magnets. Round Top is still in exploration. The company may not turn customer talks into contracts. The potential U.S. government deal still needs full paperwork, sign-offs, and to meet milestones. The filing reported a net loss of $67.0 million, or 34 cents a share, for the quarter.
Monday’s move has investors looking at how much of the story to price in now, and how much to wait for—things like clearer orders, final government backing, and evidence the company can actually deliver revenue from policy demand.
