My Favorite Way to Own Silver

My favorite way to own silver is the Sprott Physical Silver Trust (NYSE:PSLV). This is a product of the Eric Sprott group, of Toronto.

Units of this trust were trading well above $20 a few months ago. But today, even after silver’s January rally, the units are trading below $15. That’s a 25% decline, which is in sync with the drop in the price of silver.

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Junior Gold Stocks Rebound from Lows

The junior sector had a very difficult year in 2011 but has led the recent recovery (at least statistically) in the precious metals sector. Two of our favorite exchange traded funds, GDXJ and ZJG.to are up 30% and 25% respectively. That exceeds GDX (large caps) which has rebounded 15%. These are significant gains but barely put a dent in the low valuations for the sector. Ratio analysis shows us how undervalued the smaller gold stocks are yet an examination of history shows this is not out of the ordinary at this point in a bull market. [Read more...]

Commodities Take Off!

The Greek talks returned to the headlines this morning. I know I said this last Friday, and I was a little too optimistic and turned out to be wrong! But… I do expect this agreement on a private-sector involvement in Greek debt to get hammered out this weekend… It seems that the opposition from eurozone policymakers is backing off, and that has me optimistic once again.

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It May Take a Dragon to Breathe Fire Into Markets

At the Cambridge House’s Vancouver Resource Investment Conference this week, I am part of a special debate on whether China will boom or bust with bestselling author Gordon G. Chang. The title of Chang’s book, The Coming Collapse of China, states his position quite clearly and I look forward to the intellectual challenge of convincing him otherwise.

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Ratings Agencies Make it Tough on European Leaders

The European leaders were battling a pretty major storm that the ratings agencies helped create late last week when S&P cut the ratings on 9 euro-region countries. The most dramatic move was the loss of France’s AAA rating, leaving Germany as the sole AAA rated country in the currency union. Austria also lost its AAA rating while Italy and Spain fell by two notches and Portugal’s debt was cut to junk status. The ratings of Malta, Cyprus, Slovakia, and Slovenia were also lowered.

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The Gold Stocks are Tracking Past Equity Bull Markets

All bull markets have similarities and all equity bull markets have strong similarities. They go through similar phases. Most bull markets start off slow and then build towards what we like to say is an acceleration into a bubble and potential mania. In last weeks editorial we noted how bull markets, prior to the bubble phase, tend to make major bottoms every three or so years. Yet, in looking at the present bull market in gold stocks and comparing it to the previous three equity bull markets (Technology, Japan and Gold Stocks) we find stronger and deeper similarities which confirms to us that the gold stocks are in the bull market of our time. [Read more...]

Crude Oil: The Best Bet for 2012

Crude oil may not only be the best commodity play for 2012, it could prove to be the best commodity play of the next three to four years, soundly beating both gold and silver. I’m not talking about oil producers, refiners or drillers…or any individual stock — but the real thing: crude oil itself.

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Commodity Price Volatility to Continue

If 2011 was a wild year for energy and commodity prices, our expectation is that 2012 will be no different, as the news coming from Europe and other parts of the world should remain unsettling. One of the few exceptions to this environment will likely be that U.S. economic conditions will continue to improve and this should temper some of the volatility brought on by other economies around the world. [Read more...]

Commodity Price Volatility to Continue

If 2011 was a wild year for energy and commodity prices, our expectation is that 2012 will be no different, as the news coming from Europe and other parts of the world should remain unsettling. One of the few exceptions to this environment will likely be that U.S. economic conditions will continue to improve and this should temper some of the volatility brought on by other economies around the world. [Read more...]