The NY Times is reporting China has ended its Rare Earth export embargo just shortly after Secretary of State Clinton announced she would question the policy on her upcoming visit.  Interesting, China never admitted to export restrictions.

As expected the Rare Earth stocks are getting hammered with Molycorp (MCP) and Rare Earth Elements (REE) down 10 percent.  The new Rare Earth ETF (REMX), which began trading today is down about 2 percent from its opening print.  These stocks will trade from story to story with very high volatility.   The supply of the Rare Earth elements will remain extremely tight for the next few years even given the mixed signals coming out of China, in our opinion.  

Here is what the NY Times has to say,

The Chinese government abruptly ended on Thursday its unannounced embargo of exports of crucial strategic minerals to the United States, Europe and Japan, although shipments to Japan still encountered some difficulties, four rare earth industry officials said.

After blocking shipments of raw rare earth minerals to Japan since Sept. 21, and to the United States and Europe since Oct. 18, Chinese customs officials, without explanation, allowed shipments to resume to all three destinations, said industry officials who insisted on anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue. Resumed shipments to Japan still face additional scrutiny and some delays.

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