1. The Initial Sell-Off: The Yttrium Crisis News
The sharp drop in the GE Vernova stock price early last Friday was most likely triggered by the widespread reporting of the severe yttrium shortage.
• The Catalyst: Major news outlets on or around Friday, November 14, 2025, published reports highlighting the escalating yttrium crisis. These articles specifically detailed the Chinese export restrictions and noted that European prices for yttrium dioxide had surged by an astonishing 4,400% since January.
• The Direct Link to GEV: These reports explicitly named GE Vernova as one of the major industrial companies at risk because yttrium is essential for the high-temperature coatings on their gas turbine blades.
• Market Fear: The market reacted to the news of a potential, massive input cost increase and a supply chain bottleneck for a critical component of GE Vernova's flagship product (gas turbines, which are in huge demand due to AI data centers). This fear led to the sharp, immediate sell-off.
2. The Quick Recovery: Market Digestion of the Solution
The stock's quick recovery shortly after the initial drop strongly suggests that the market rapidly factored in the mitigating information—the story of ReElement Technologies.
• The ReElement Factor: The same news reports that highlighted the yttrium crisis often immediately followed up with information about the U.S. government-backed effort to create a domestic supply. Specifically, the news mentioned ReElement Technologies' plan to produce 200 tons/year by December and 400 tons/year by March 2026.
• Mitigation of Geopolitical Risk: For institutional investors, this news shifts the issue from an unsolvable geopolitical vulnerability (reliant on China) to a solvable industrial ramp-up problem (a domestic supply coming online soon). The prospect of a domestic source meeting nearly 100% of current U.S. demand provides a clear path to securing GE Vernova's supply chain and insulating it from future Chinese export restrictions.
• Buying Opportunity: Once the market determined the yttrium crisis was a short-term cost issue with a visible, long-term fix, the stock became attractive again, prompting buyers to step in and reverse the initial sell-off.
Conclusion
It is highly probable that the initial sell-off was a knee-jerk reaction to the yttrium shortage news, and the rapid recovery was a sign of the market quickly incorporating the mitigating factor of ReElement Technologies' new, government-backed domestic production plan.
