all kinds of music this morning. i m liking that. it s 18 1/2 minutes past the hour. christine romans is here. and the chinese have been very shrewd buying up all these natural resources around the world so they have their hands on the world s supply. that s right. and in china, there s about 90% of something called rare-earth minerals mined there. and they re an incredible component to manufacturing in this country. and there are reports the u.s. trade representative office is investigating reports that the chinese have halted exports of these minerals. they re in everything from wood turbines to the cockpit of a fighter jet to your blackberry to your ipod to hybrid cars. these are minerals that actually aren t to rare, but most of them are mined in china. and because of a dispute with japan, there s been halting of exports overall. but now reports in the new york times, particularly, everyone s looking into that the chinese