It has been two-years since the S&P 500 bottomed in October 2022 and stocks began a new bull market. 

During this time, many sectors and industry groups have enjoyed tremendous uptrends while materials stocks have gone sideways.

But materials stocks are starting to look interesting...

The SPDR Materials Sector ETF $XLB is making new all-time highs:

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about Silver futures attempting to emerge from a multi-year accumulation pattern and potentially retesting the former all-time high.

Last week,  Silver made a new multi-decade high in absolute terms and broke a multi-year downtrend line relative to Gold. 

And if the 47th element is about to blast off, we should look closer at the Junior Silver Miners.

But first, check out this chart of the Silver/Gold ratio:

Last week, we discussed China and Gold futures as potential catalysts for resolving a multi-decade basing pattern in Dr. Copper.

If we're in an environment where Copper futures are printing fresh all-time highs, then we should spend some time identifying opportunities in the equities market that benefit from rising base and industrial metal prices globally.

Over the last 6-months, the Steel $SLX, Copper $COPX, and Metals and Mining $XME ETFs have underperformed the S&P 500:

Despite the recent volatility, gold continues its steady ascent, unaffected by the broader market noise. 

As seasonals have shifted and new leadership has come and gone this year, gold remains resilient, moving through market regimes with ease.

Whether stocks rally or risk-off sentiment prevails, gold thrives. The yellow metal has been red-hot all year.

In these times, the saying goes, "there is no fever like gold fever." 

But, is there any evidence of this kind of euphoria among investors yet?

While the COT report suggests sentiment may be overstretched, let’s talk about what we’re seeing on the ground.

There’s little buzz about gold in the financial media. No bold predictions of $10K gold on magazine covers, no headlines touting it as the ultimate safe haven in an impending crisis—signals that often show up at market tops. We’re just not seeing it.

For context, in 2011, fears of currency depreciation were rampant. The covers of TIME magazine and Smart Money allow us to remember this moment. They came right at the top.

Large Speculators haven't owned this much Gold since 2020. We have the data.

In precious metal bull markets, it's perfectly normal for Commercial Hedgers to offset their physical positions by shorting the underlying futures contracts.

We also tend to see the Speculators build massive net-long positions.

Check out the extreme Commercial Hedger net-short position in Gold and Silver futures:

Gold futures have been relentlessly rising and printing new all-time highs. The precious metal is now overbought on a 14-day, week, and month RSI. 

We've recently seen Palladium rip over 20% in a few days and momentum thrusts for the Junior Gold & Silver Miners ETFs.

With this new Gold bull market now almost 7 months old, maybe it's time for Silver futures to break out of their multi-year range.

Let's talk about it:

Last week, Palladium surged nearly 20% after we discussed buying the futures, and Gold reached a new all-time high.

In response, precious metals mining stocks ripped higher for their best week since 2020.

The momentum behind some of these moves is absurd. For example, CDE, GATO, AG, and NGD all rallied over 30% last week.

Let's talk about what we're doing about it:

Last month, we discussed the Palladium ETF $PALL hitting fresh 7-year lows, breaching a critical support level.

However, the bears could not gain any downside momentum, and it seems like we're nearing a cyclical trough.

Commercial hedgers have never carried a larger net-long position. Historically, it has been prudent to not bet against the smart money in commodities markets.

And one of our favorite long-term momentum indicators, the monthly MACD, has now given us a buy signal. That said, it's still a bit messy in the short term.

Let's talk about it.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Precious metals stocks have been ripping since Gold futures resolved a multi-decade accumulation pattern earlier this year.

But most of these stocks don't have much short interest...

We love to trade stocks with high short interest as there is a built in catalyst of forced buyers when the stock makes an upside move.

Today, we're outlining a trade for a precious metals stock with an extremely high days-to-cover ratio and short interest.

First, check out this long-term uptrend in A-Mark Precious Metals $AMRK:

It's no secret that we're in a bull market for precious metals.

We made the argument for a new secular uptrend for these shiny rocks in last week's Gold Rush video.

Why do we think this is the case?

Gold futures have been printing fresh all-time highs seemingly every day, and precious metals stocks have followed suit with new highs of their own.

When you go back and study the previous cycles you'll notice that every bull market is characterized by more and more stocks making new highs along with the underlying futures contracts.

So let's take a step back and look at some stocks that are making new highs.

In today's Gold Rush video, we discussed our outlook for a new secular bull market in the yellow metal.

We also covered Commitment of Traders positioning, mining stocks, and much more.

We dug into our latest blog post as well, providing some much-needed color.

We covered Gold vs. Commodities, the best risk/reward setups in precious metals stocks, and more.

Here's the video:

Gold has not only been shining in absolute terms but is also dramatically outperforming the broader commodity complex.

While energy chops around in a multi-year range and cattle carve out a distribution pattern, the glittering ore refuses to quit printing new all-time highs.