President Donald Trump has been vocal about the U.S. converting grants and subsidies into stakes in businesses of consequence for national security. Although controversial, his approach is not getting much pushback. (There's this from TheHill on Trump's economic methods.)
The latest candidate for the government taking an equity holding? The aptly named Lithium Americas, an aspiring lithium miner that owns the right to commercialize America's largest known lithium deposit. It's a company that must speak personally to the America First president, who seeks to convert government funds handed to the miner into equity.
It's up 100% today, making it the best-performing stock of the day. By contrast, equity benchmarks are pretty boring. The Russell 2000 (-0.57%), Dow (-0.2%), S&P 500 (-0.33%), and Nasdaq (-0.46%) are all down, continuing a decline from yesterday. Maybe this isn't particularly surprising, seeing how September is historically a weak month for equities. But after the Fed meeting, everybody seemed to forget that.
Wednesday Reading:.
Aside from that, today's star has been housing. This morning, data from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that the 30-year mortgage rate declined to 6.34% from a week earlier, while the overall market saw a small uptick in refinancing and purchasing activity.
And we saw some promising trends in new-home sales, which grew 20% month-over-month to about 800K, potentially helping companies like KB Home, which is reporting earnings after the close.
Results from the homebuilder are part of the thin list of remaining earnings this season. It joins Cintas (beat and raise), Uranium Energy (missed on earnings), and Thor industries (double beat), all of which reported this morning.
TurboTax Via TheStreet:
-- Noah Weidner, Markets Reporter
