November 29, 2023 | Daily JAM, Jubak Picks, Top 50 Stocks |
At least the hand-over-fist selling of lithium stocks stopped for a day. Albemarle (ALB), the big and low-cost producer, did experience another 0.43% drop today, November 29. But that was still way better than the 6.3% plunge on Monday. And shares of Lithium Americas (LAC) and qm (SQM) managed gains of 1.38% and 0.98%, respectively. There’s no mystery to the drop. Lithium prices have continued to fall. As o Monday, Chinese prices for lithium carbonate have dropped 20% so far in November and 75% for 2023 to date.
May 11, 2023 | Daily JAM, Top 50 Stocks |
Today’s Quick Pick is Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), a lithium producer. Lithium demand continues to rise with electric vehicles and rechargeable batteries finding expanding and new markets. Lithium producers have had a difficult time meeting demand–and projections say the demand gap is going to expand– and the price of Lithium has shot up. However, Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE: SQM), and Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), two Chilean lithium producers, took a hit recently due to political risks. Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric announced a plan on April 22 to nationalize the country’s lithium resources, sending the lithium stocks plunging. However, investors may have overlooked some key points in the announcement: the country will honor existing leases (SQM’s leases expire in 2030, and Albemarle’s leases expire in 2043) and this plan still has to be passed by the Chilean legislature. Recent votes have favored the right in Chile and Boric’s party may not have the votes (or inclination) in the current legislature to pass this proposal. A right-wing government would likely be unhappy with the idea of nationalizing a previously private sector. (Chile’s lithium resources already belong to the state with these companies holding time-limited production leases.) Right now, with Albemarle’s longer lease and changing Chilean politics, this is a good time to get in on Albemarle and its expanding lithium production from mines in Australia and the United States. (Only 30% of its revenue comes from Chile.)
March 3, 2023 | Daily JAM, LAC, Millennial |
Lithium Americas (LAC) isn’t letting any grass grow under its feet. Just a day after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused a request for an emergency injunction that would have blocked construction at the Thacker Pass, Nevada, the proposed site of what could become the largest North American source of lithium, the company announced that it had begun construction of the massive strip mine.
March 2, 2023 | Daily JAM, LICY, Millennial |
Today’s Quick Pick is Li-Cycle Holdings (NYSE: LICY). Li-Cycle is in the start-up stage of building a hub and spoke system to recycle lithium batteries. As more electric vehicles enter the market, companies that can recycle the lithium from their batteries has drawn a lot of investment dollars, both because fulfilling the green potential of electric vehicles requires closing the battery loop and because recycling provides a supply increasingly expensive of battery materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel. And there are new incentives in the field because the Inflation Reduction Act included money for loans/funding for recycling companies. Most of the new entrants are private. One of the few publicly traded battery recycling companies is Li-Cycle. Li-Cycle started as a SPAC, a formerly popular way to take a company, but now the market is largely shunning SPAC companies out of fear that they will run out of capital before they hit breakeven. However, Li-Cycle just announced it had received conditional approval for a $375 million loan from the Department of Energy, allowing it, by my calculations, Â to finish their Rochester hub. The hub recovers marketable lithium, cobalt, and nickel from the black mass that the company collects from batteries. Once the hub is completed, it will go from a cash drain on the balance sheet to a generator of cash. This is a risky stock. The shares are down 57% since I added them to my Milliennial Portfolio on November 15, 2021 but they are up 21% for 2023 to date as of March 2. This one is for the strong of stomach willing to take a risk and hold on to it through dips as the company starts to generate revenue and earnings.
December 2, 2022 | Daily JAM, FREY, Jubak Picks |
Yesterday, shares of clean energy battery startup Freyr Battery (FREY) rumbled 12.01% on news that the company would sell 20 million new shares to raise capital for its planned battery factories in Norway and (newly announced) Georgia. Today, December 2, traders and investors have done a bit of rethinking and bid the stock up 3.91% as of the close.
November 30, 2022 | Daily JAM, GWH, Millennial, Special Reports |
Call this bookkeeping. I recommended ESS Tech (GWH) in my November 11 Quick Pick video on Youtube. Today I’m adding it to my Special Report: Own the Future for Pennies with my 10 Best Penny Stock Picks as pick #8. And to my Millennial Portfolio–For Investors With More Time Than Money. The stock is down $6.44% today November 30 to $3.0386, so this seems a good time to buy for patient, very long-term investors. Here’s what I said in that YouTube video.
October 20, 2022 | Daily JAM, Videos |
Today I posted by one-hundred-ninety-fifth YouTube video: Quick Pick ESS Tech. This week’s Quick Pick is: ESS Tech (NYSE: GWH) This iron flow battery company has been around since 2011 but it is very much at the first sales stage. So, like a lot of early-stage companies without very much revenue, its shares have been crushed. The 52-week range on this stock is $21.37 down to $2.60. On October 19 the stock was trading near $3.70. Given that volatility and the current Bear Market, I’d definitely recommend dollar-cost-averaging. ESS Tech sells iron flow batteries. Flow batteries are less mobile than lithium-ion batteries due to their size, but they’re a much better match than lithium-ion batteries for utility-scale energy storage. Unlike lithium batteries which see their capacity to store energy degrade with each change, flow batteries show no capacity degradation over a 25-year life cycle. Flow batteries are also much less temperature sensitive than lithium-ion batteries so they don’t require expensive heating and cooling systems. That adds up to a very low cost of ownership. ESS is starting to sell what it calls “energy warehouses” to utilities and recently signed a deal with Tampa Electric to support its Big Bend Solar Project. This early-stage company’s revenue in the second quarter was only $686,000, but it is ramping up a second manufacturing line to support a higher level of sales. and we’re seeing sales move forward. I think flow batteries are going to be a big part of the renewable energy ecosystem, and ESS is one of the best pure plays that I’ve found.
October 4, 2022 | Daily JAM, Jubak Picks |
I added Freyr Battery to my 10 Perfect Stock Special Report today. Tomorrow I’m adding the stock to my Jubak Picks Portfolio with a target price of $21 a share. This is what I wrote about Freyr in my Special Report.
August 25, 2022 | ALB, Daily JAM, Jubak Picks, Top 50 Stocks |
Lithium producer Albemarle (ALB) closed up 2.71% today after hitting an all-time high of $298.17 in intraday trading. The shares closed at $295.68. The gains for Albemarle, and across the lithium sector, came as Goldman Sachs upgraded lithium battery maker Freyr Battery (FREY) on projected higher demand for lithium batteries after the Inflation Reduction Act. Albemarle is a member of my Jubak Picks Portfolio where it is up 200.18% since my August 10, 2018 stock pick. The stock is also a member of my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio where it is up 221.67% since February 17, 2017.
May 16, 2022 | Daily JAM, LICY, Videos |
My one-hundredth-and-thirty-fifth YouTube video “Trend of the Week: Another Battery Investment” went up today. This week I’m looking at investments by fossil-fuel companies, such as Koch Industries, in battery technology stocks. Koch’s venture arm has made several investments–committing significant amounts of cash–in battery companies. Koch Industries isn’t alone. Big commodity trader Glencore seems to be following the same course. That company recently committed $200 million toLi-Cycle (LICY), a stock I’ve covered before and which has been pounded along with other battery and alternative energy stocks. The question for individual investors is whether they have as long a time horizon–and as big a tolerance for risk–as these big energy and commodities players.
December 28, 2021 | Daily JAM, Special Reports |
I’m starting my Special Report on “5 new economies that will shape the future” with the Battery Economy because 1) it’s important on its own, and 2) it has the power to reshape so much of the macro economy. And that last “because” makes the “Battery Economy” an ideal example of what these 5 new “little” economies are all about and why they’re so important to the future growth of your portfolio.
December 14, 2021 | Daily JAM, LICY, Millennial |
Li-Cycle Holdings LICY), a recycler of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, has entered into a non-binding letter of intent to supply LG Chem, Korea’s largest diversified chemical company and LG Energy Solution, a leader in the market for lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, with 20,000 metric tons of nickel from recycled waters over the 10 year beginning in 2023. Upon signing of the final agreement, LG Chem and LG Energy Solutions will together make a $50 million buy of shares in Li-Cycle.
