Jim Cramer wanted investors to rotate out of "quantum/nuke/crypto" hype into real-economy names. But judging by the year-to-date leaderboard, that rotation might have landed in another bubble — rare earths. Stocks around the “Rare Earth Mineral trade are on fire” he said. These miners, refiners, and energy-adjacent plays are soaring, even as most don't produce steady earnings.
- Track the VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF here.
From Dirt to Dollars: The Rare Earths Go Parabolic
From United States Antimony Corp (AMEX:UAMY), up a staggering 881.46% YTD, to Texas Mineral Resources Corp (OTCQB:TMRC), up 843.69%, and Trilogy Metals Inc (AMEX:TMQ), which has surged 813.79%, the sector's price action reads more like a meme-stock rally than a commodity trade.
Even established players like MP Materials Corp (NYSE:MP) and Centrus Energy Corp (AMEX:LEU) have clocked gains above 480% this year — far outpacing any broad market index or industrial metals benchmark.
Read Also: Cramer’s Banking Bet: Why JPMorgan And Goldman Still Look Cheap
Profits? Still Buried Underground
But beneath those eye-popping returns lies a worrying signal: negative earnings yields across nearly every name. American Resources Corp (NASDAQ:AREC), NioCorp Developments Ltd (NASDAQ:NB), The Metals Company Inc (NASDAQ:TMC), and others are all posting negative profitability, underscoring Cramer's warning that "most don't generate any revenue." Only Centrus Energy, with an earnings yield of 1.56%, even shows a sliver of fundamental grounding — though its 64x trailing P/E and EV/EBITDA above 50 (per Benzinga Pro data) suggest valuations that are, quite literally, off the charts.
When The ‘Real Economy' Trade Turns Unreal
The speculative fever has spread well beyond Wall Street's comfort zone. Ramaco Resources Inc (NASDAQ:METC) and Oklo Inc (NYSE:OKLO) — the latter a nuclear startup — are being swept into the same rare earth narrative despite vastly different business models. With the "green transition" and defense applications serving as the thematic glue, investors appear more captivated by story than substance.
For Cramer, that's the red flag. His hope was to "take the air out of" speculative bubbles and pump life into solid, earnings-backed sectors. But the rare earth trade — now hotter than uranium, lithium, or even crypto itself — may be proving the opposite: when easy money hunts for the next big thing, fundamentals often get buried deeper than the minerals themselves.
Read Next:
Image by The Light Lab via Shutterstock
© 2025 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
