After a Friday plunge, stocks rebounded strongly on Monday. Below are five newsworthy market areas to monitor:
Small Caps Outperform
Small caps and the Russell 2000 Index (IWM) were the strongest stocks during Monday’s rebound. IWM gained 2.78% for the session, nearly clawing back all of Friday’s 2.99% loss. We remain constructive on the space as IWM works on a multi-year breakout.
Crypto Crashes Amid Overleverage, Rebounds Monday
The crypto market experienced its worst single-session market cap drop on Friday. Unfortunately, when President Trump shared his China message, many crypto investors were overleveraged and caught offside, causing a classic liquidation cascade in crypto and crypto proxies like the iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT).
MP Materials Soars on Rare-Earth Tensions
MP Materials (MP) has emerged as a big winner and a hedge of sorts for investors amid the China-US rivalry backdrop. Shares have broken out and are up over 30% this month amid the news about China’s rare-earth restrictions. Because the US government views rare earths as a national security pillar, MP is likely to continue to be a beneficiary as the US decouples from China and other hostile countries. Meanwhile, respected JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon recently spoke about the need for the US to reduce reliance on foreign nations for rare earths and minerals.
AI Energy Stocks Soar Amid Flurry of Positive News
The artificial intelligence race between China and the United States is in full swing. While the US is off to an early (albeit, small) lead in the AI race, it is far behind in the energy race. Energy is critical to AI because AI data centers require significant energy. Monday, Bloom Energy (BE) spiked 26% after it announced a partnership to provide Brookfield with $5 billion in on-site fuel cells to power AI data centers. Meanwhile, Navitas Semiconductor (NVTS), bolted 30% after the market close, following an announcement of a deal to help Nvidia (NVDA) power the next wave of AI factories. NVTS makes chips that help to make AI data centers more efficient.
Quantum Computing Stocks Continue to Soar
Despite Friday’s plunge, investors continued to pile into high-octane quantum computing stocks. QC stocks are the top 2025 performers. Rigetti Computing (RGTI) has rewarded shareholders with an astonishing 6,000% return thus far in 2025.
Bottom Line
Despite the Friday sell-off, Wall Street’s strongest industry themes reasserted themselves Monday. Quantum computing, rare earth, and AI energy stocks led the way.
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM): Free Stock Analysis Report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA): Free Stock Analysis Report MP Materials Corp. (MP): Free Stock Analysis Report Bloom Energy Corporation (BE): Free Stock Analysis Report Navitas Semiconductor Corporation (NVTS): Free Stock Analysis Report Rigetti Computing, Inc. (RGTI): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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