Why Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile Stock Dropped 9% Before Earnings

What we do know is that the lithium miner announced its last quarterly earnings (for Q4 2020) on March 3, and filed that report with the SEC on March 4, a few days later on the calendar than it has done so for its Q4 reports in years past. Given all of that, investors selling SQM stock lower on Monday may be anticipating bad news. If earnings don't grow at least as fast as sales, that would indicate weakening gross margins in the lithium business ... and that would be bad news not just for Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile, but for anyone else involved in the lithium industry, as well.