Market Voices: China trade talks, Bloom-Brookfield, rare earth exports

[US tariff on China import trade war cargo shipping container]

_Seeking Alpha's roundup of statements, announcements, and remarks that could impact markets, sectors, or individual stocks. _

* Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he believes President Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi will take place as planned, despite Trump stating last week that he saw no reason to meet in view of China's recently announced export restrictions on rare earth minerals.

In a long interview with Fox Business on Monday [https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6382682010112], Bessent said Trump thinks China's rare earth export announcement last week, which appears to have caught the administration by surprise, may have been put out by a lower-level Chinese official rather than Xi himself.

Bessent also speculated that China may have put out the announcement in an attempt to gain leverage ahead of the talks.

"Trying to get leverage in front of a meeting with Donald Trump is a bad idea, and he turned the tables with his two very good tweets on Friday talking about raising tariffs and implementing any sanctions that we need to," Bessent said. "But we are communicating now. I am confident that we can move forward."

* Trump also indicated that negotiations with China will continue as planned.

"Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine! Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment. He doesn’t want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!!" Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday [https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115362196088273474].

* Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BE]) said it has entered into a $5 billion partnership with Brookfield (NYSE:BAM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BAM]) to provide energy for AI data centers built by Brookfield.

Under the deal, Brookfield will invest up to $5 billion to deploy Bloom's fuel cell technology to the data centers, which it calls AI factories, with both companies collaborating on their design and delivery.

“Behind-the-meter power solutions are essential to closing the grid gap for AI factories,” said Sikander Rashid, Brookfield's global head of AI infrastructure, in a statement [https://seekingalpha.com/pr/20263017-brookfield-and-bloom-energy-announce-5-billion-strategic-ai-infrastructure-partnership].

“Bloom’s advanced fuel cell technology gives us the unique capability to design and construct modern AI factories with a holistic and innovative approach to power needs. As the world’s largest AI infrastructure investor, this partnership adds a powerful new tool to our global growth strategy, especially in a grid-constrained market environment," Rashid added.

* University of Pennsylvania professor emeritus of finance Jeremy Siegel called for the U.S. to establish a rare earth strategic reserve amid brewing tensions with China over supplying the minerals, which are used in a wide variety of technological devices.

“It’s scandalous that we don’t have a rare earth strategic reserve [and] that we let China monopolize 90% of refining rare earth materials,” Siegel said in an interview on CNBC [https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/13/siegel-says-its-scandalous-the-us-doesnt-have-a-rare-earths-reserve.html]. “Where were we, realizing the importance of these?”

Despite the tensions, Seigal said he believes the U.S. and China will work out a deal for rare earths before the Nov. 1 deadline for additional U.S. tariffs to take effect.

“It’ll be worked out, and it won’t be too negative for either country,” Siegel said.

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