industry expert jack lifton, says the blame is misplaced. >> in this case, the free market failed. it failed, from the point of view of our security. it didn't fail... it did cut the costs. isn't that what the intent was? but nobody was paying attention to the security of supply or the security of the country. >> reporter: for retail investors, there are few opportunities right now to place a bet on this trend. >> there aren't futures contracts. there are several e.t.f.s and e.t.f.s that are related. again, this is big in the defense industry. i believe there's an i-shares, and there's a couple of other e.t.f.s that are available to play the industries that use these metals. and that's as close as you can get to trading these rare earths right now. >> reporter: but that may change. kerr believes we will see e.t.f.s in some of the rare earth elements traded in the next few years. scott gurvey, "nightly business report," new york. >> susie: here are the stories in tonight's "n.b.r. newswheel." on wall street, stocks fell for the second consecutive day. the dow lost 76 points, the nas