Market Minute ⏱️ 9/24/25: Feds Eyeing Another Corporate Stake?

Mike Larson | Editor-in-Chief

Stocks rolled over into the close yesterday, but they’re trading mostly flat this morning. Gold and silver are pulling back along with Treasuries, while crude oil and the dollar are rising.

Shares of Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC) are soaring more than 70% after reports the Trump Administration will take a stake of as much as 10% in the firm. The Biden Administration had loaned LAC $2.3 billion to fund a lithium mining project in Nevada. The stake would be granted as part of a renegotiation of that financing package.

LAC, INTC, MP (YTD % Change)

The federal government has been increasing its ties with Corporate America under Trump, taking stakes in companies as wide-ranging as chipmaker Intel Corp. (INTC) and rare earth miner MP Materials Corp. (MP). LAC’s Thacker Pass project will be the largest lithium facility in the Western Hemisphere if it opens on schedule in 2028. That, in turn, would reduce the US’ reliance on China for a metal critical for electronics and Electric Vehicles (EVs).

Artificial Intelligence (AI) spending pledges just keep getting bigger – and investors keep rewarding them with higher share prices. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) just said it would spend much more than the $50 billion it originally announced back in February. The news sent US-traded shares of the Chinese company up more than 8% in the early going. The tech conglomerate operates cloud computing facilities in countries like the US and Australia, and will soon add data centers in Brazil, France, and the Netherlands.

Lastly, a new wave of cryptocurrency ETFs will soon hit the US markets following the release of updated Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidelines. Those standards will reduce the time it takes to launch crypto ETFs dramatically, likely leading to a flood of new products that will target less-popular cryptos like Solana and XRP...or even Dogecoin. Investors can already choose from a wealth of funds that hold Bitcoin and Ethereum..

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• NVDA: Is Latest "Vendor Financing" Deal a Red Flag for AI?
  👉️ TICKERS: ORCL, NVDA
  We just saw another “vendor financing deal” in the Artificial Intelligence space between Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and Open AI. It has the names Lucent and Nortel ringing in my ear from the days when they announced similar deals with customers in the late 1990s – except the ones being announced now are so much bigger in terms of dollars, notes Peter Boockvar, editor of The Boock Report.

• FCX: Profiting from a Metal Powering the Modern World
  👉️ TICKERS: COPX, FM.CA, PICK, SCCO, FCX
  Copper is not a hype story. It doesn’t rely on moonshot projections or retail euphoria. It’s not optional for the energy transition — it’s foundational. Investors can gain exposure through multiple strategies, including large-cap producers like Freeport-McMoRan Corp. (FCX), writes Nicholas Vardy, editor of The Global Guru.

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💸 👩‍🏭 Jerome Powell sees a frothy stock market and limited inflation impact from tariffs. The Fed chief maintains that the job market presents the biggest risks right now. (Opening Bell Daily)