WSJ What’s News - Tesla Turmoil, WK Kellogg Gains, MP Materials Soars

Episode Date: July 12, 2025

Why did the latest back-and-forth between President Trump and Elon Musk affect Tesla shares? And what food-industry deal news gave WK Kellogg a bump? Plus, why did a Pentagon investment lift shares of rare-earths miner MP Materials? Host Francesca Fontana discusses the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hey listeners, it's Saturday, July 12th. I'm Francesca Fontana for The Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it. Maybe one day I won't sound like such a broken record, but once again the big story of the stock market this week was trade, trade, trade. I'm going to stick to a couple of the highlights. So first off, President Trump's announcement of tariffs on global copper imports sent the

metals futures rising, and with with them shares of mining companies like Freeport McMorrin, which gained 2.5% on Tuesday. And the stock rose roughly 3.5% on Thursday, the day after Trump reiterated his plans for the U.S. to start collecting the tax on August 1st. There's also the Brazilian tariff news, 50%. Also starting next month. And this sent a BlackRock ETF that tracks an index of Brazilian stocks falling. US traded shares of Jetmaker, Embraer dropped more than 4% on Thursday. And most relevant to my caffeine-fueled lifestyle, Arabica Coffee Futures rose 1.3%. All in all, the three major indexes each fell on the week. The Dow lost 1%, the S&P 500 lost 0.3%, and the Nasdaq edged 0.1% lower.

The beef between Trump and billionaire Elon Musk is still going strong, and still moving shares of Musk's electric car maker, Tesla. On Monday, traders reacted to the latest in their feud. Over the weekend, Musk posted on his platform ex, formerly Twitter, that he's creating a new political party, the America Party. Trump called that ridiculous. These guys have been trading barbs for a while now. And for Tesla investors, there are real stakes here. Trump recently raised the prospect that he could eliminate contracts and other benefits that the government gives

to Musk's companies. So it makes sense that we saw Tesla shares decline 6.8% on Monday. And on the week, the stock slipped 0.6%. Sorry in advance if you have a sweet tooth. Next up, we're talking W.K. Kellogg, maker of Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes, and Ferrero, the Italian candy maker behind Ferrero Rocher and Nutella. Ferrero has agreed to acquire W.K. Kellogg for roughly $3 billion, which would give Ferrero a boost in its business across the pond. Now, reminder, W.K. Kellogg is different from Kellogg. In 2023, Kellogg spun off its North American cereal business, that's WK Kellogg, from

its global snacking business, now called Kellenova. And Kellenova's being acquired, too. It struck a roughly $30 billion deal with M&Ms and Skittlemaker Mars last year. WK Kellogg shares jumped roughly 30% on Thursday and held on to those gains to end the week. If you think a 30% move is big, just wait. Rare Earths miner MP Materials made an unusual deal with the Pentagon to help the U.S. get a leg up in what I think is a fascinating market. Magnets.

Okay, long story, very short. Rare Earths minerals are used to make magnets that are critical to manufacturing cars, wind turbines, and jet fighters. China has a near monopoly on rare earths production, which was a big problem in April. Trump's tariffs kicked off the US-China trade war, and Beijing started limiting rare earth exports, upending the global supply chain. Then in June they made a truce. The US temporarily reduces the tariffs. China pledges to expedite exports.

But the underlying issue, China's chokehold on this crucial industrial resource, it's still there, right? So the Defense Department agreed to take a 15% stake in MP materials, invest billions by its output, and in return the company will build a new factory to ramp up US production. With this factory, the company is aiming for 10,000 metric tons of magnets a year. And just to put that in perspective, one research firm expects US production of 250 to 750 tons of the main type of magnet this year. A pretty big leap. MP materials shares also made a big leap on Thursday, about 50%. That's 5-0. And now you know, what's news in markets this week? You can read about more stocks

that moved on the week's news in The Score, my column in the Wall Street Journal's Exchange section. Today's show was produced by Charlotte Gartenberg with supervising producer Talia Arbel. I'm Francesca Fontana. Have a great weekend and I'll see you next Saturday.