A few of my subscribers asked me recently about the lethargic action in the miners lately given that the price of gold has started moving higher again. But it helps to step back and look at a longer time-frame. For the last 52 seeks, the HUI has significantly outperformed GLD. I also ran the comps for 6 months, 3 months and 1 month. The HUI has outperformed gold for the last year up until the last 30 days. Nothing unusual with that. Assuming the current bull move in the metals sustains for awhile, the mining stocks will soon begin to outperform the metals again.
The myth is that the stocks lead the metals. But this is not true for periods when longer-term sustainable moves occur. Gold leads, typically followed by the larger cap miners, followed by silver. Bringing up the rear are the risky juniors, which can provide huge returns in a short period of time. Currently the mining stocks – and especially the micro-cap junior exploration “venture capital” stocks – are extraordinarily undervalued in relation to the prices of gold and silver. Chris Marcus of Arcadia Economics and I discuss this view in Chris’ podcast:
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