Cleveland-Cliffs said it would explore producing rare-earth minerals, and credited U.S. trade policy—which includes a 50% tariff on steel—for helping it seal new supply deals with major auto companies.

CEO Lourenco Goncalves said Cleveland-Cliffs was examining mining sites in Michigan and Minnesota that show key indicators of rare-earth minerals. This would align with the Trump administration’s attempt to boost domestic production of the critical materials, which have become a flashpoint in trade tensions with China, The Wall Street Journal’s Nicholas G. Miller writes.

The company reported rising demand for its steel in the third quarter, and Goncalves said U.S. auto companies were considering using more steel in vehicles after a plant fire last month disrupted aluminum supplies. Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs shot up over 20%, and the company said it entered a memorandum of understanding with an unnamed global steel producer seeking to benefit from U.S. production.

• President Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed an agreement to work together on critical mineral production. (WSJ)

Activist investor Starboard Value has taken a nearly 5% stake in Fluor and plans to press for ways to boost the engineering and construction company’s shares, according to people familiar with the matter. The Journal’s Lauren Thomas writes that Starboard believes Fluor should benefit from new government policies that are accelerating a wave of planned investments in the U.S., the people said.

The Irving, Texas, company also has a nearly 40% stake in NuScale Power, which designs and markets small modular reactors. NuScale’s shares have surged almost 150% this year amid power demand from AI data centers. Starboard believes Fluor should explore options for its NuScale stake, including a potential sale, the people familiar with the matter said.

The August cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover shows how destructive a hack can be for the target and its supply-chain partners. The hack forced JLR, a unit of India’s Tata Motors, to shut production for at least six weeks while it recovered its technology systems.

The U.K. government guaranteed a loan of about $2 billion to help ease supply-chain pressures, and the company is providing suppliers with cash up-front for orders while it resumes production. Still, some damage was done, James Rundle of WSJ Pro Cybersecurity writes. Vertu Motors, a U.K. dealership, said it expects to take a $7.4 million hit to its bottom line. British chip maker Ensilica, a supplier to JLR, cut revenue expectations by about $6.7 million, citing lower orders because of a cyberattack at a client.

China's economic momentum decelerated to its slowest pace in a year, with GDP expanding 4.8% in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, and down from 5.2% in the second quarter. (WSJ)

Canadian companies’ sales outlook deteriorated to its lowest level in over two years on concerns about U.S. trade policy. (WSJ)

Merck began construction on a previously announced $3 billion manufacturing facility in Virginia. (WSJ)

Swiss building-materials supplier Holcim plans to acquire Germany’s Xella for more than $2 billion. (WSJ)

Rheinmetall’s joint venture, Artec, secured a $3.98 billion order for 150 infantry vehicles for Germany and 72 for the Netherlands. (WSJ)

Vestas Wind Systems paused construction of a new blade factory in Poland because of lower than projected demand for offshore wind in Europe. (WSJ)

KKR is launching a marine container-leasing platform called Galaxy Container Solutions with $500 million in capital committed. (Bloomberg)

Four crew members were killed and three were missing, along with two contractors, after a service boat carrying them to a tanker off the coast of Mozambique capsized on Thursday. (Lloyd’s List)

Wayfair plans to close a plant in Erlanger, Ky., next year, affecting 215 employees, as part of a logistics-network overhaul. (SupplyChainDive)

Mark R. Long is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at mark.long@wsj.com. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team on LinkedIn: Mark R. Long, Liz Young and Paul Berger.