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>April 15, 2024 (Reuters) - North Carolina regulators have approved a state mining permit for Tesla to develop one of the largest U.S. sources of the key electric vehicle battery metal


Why SQM, Standard Lithium, and Piedmont Lithium Stocks All Dropped Today
Rich Smith, The Motley Fool
Mon, October 14, 2024 at 1:29 PM PDT
The bull run on lithium stocks seems to have run its course

Last week, lithium stocks exploded higher after British mining giant Rio Tinto Group (NYSE: RIO) announced it was buying Arcadium Lithium (NYSE: ALTM) for $6.7 billion, a move that seemed to signal that the cyclical lithium market has hit bottom and is ready to bounce back. Shares of lithium companies entirely unrelated to that specific transaction also surged, with Piedmont Lithium (NASDAQ: PLL) in particular gaining 21.5% on the week, and Standard Lithium (NYSEMKT: SLI) shooting up a staggering 48.5%.
Larger Sociedad Química y Minera (NYSE: SQM), also known as SQM, scored a more modest 1.2% gain.
On Monday, all these numbers rolled in reverse. As of the close of trading, Standard Lithium stock was down 6.8%, Piedmont had dropped by 7.7%, and SQM was down by 5.1%. The question is: Why?

Why lithium stocks are tanking
You can probably blame investment bank JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) for the turnaround. On Friday, it pulled its overweight rating on SQM and downgraded the shares to neutral, citing a too-far, too-fast rise in the share price. (This late-breaking downgrade was one reason why SQM stock didn't rise as much as the others last week. It had been up by more before the downgrade).
Worse news for lithium investors, JPMorgan issued a bearish forecast for lithium prices worldwide -- and for the next three years.
Lithium that cost more than $85,000 per ton less than two years ago averages closer to $10,600 per ton today, according to data from TradingEconomics.com.