Commodities: Gold
The VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX) surged +9.4% on Wednesday night after the US Treasury unexpectedly stepped up its purchases of long-dated bonds, announcing buybacks of at least US$4bn per operation. The surprise intervention sent 30-year Treasury yields ~10bp lower and weakened the US dollar, providing an immediate boost to gold, which jumped more than 4% to its highest since early June. Gold miners magnified the move through their operating leverage, with Newmont (+7.8%), Barrick (+6.7%), Agnico Eagle (+11.2%) and Kinross (+8.1%) all surging higher.
Gold rose 0.8% last week, briefly touching a 10-week high of $4,408 as geopolitical tensions around the Strait of Hormuz and softer US inflation data supported demand. Fading Fed hike expectations, sustained ETF inflows and increasingly bullish hedge-fund positioning provided a tailwind, although the precious metals failure to break decisively through $4,400 suggests near-term momentum may be tiring, even though we think the backdrop is steadily improving.
If you were to build a portfolio of 5 ASX resources stocks (across base metals, precious metals and energy) what would be your highest conviction picks right now and why. Can be large cap and small caps.
Chrysos delivered an FY26 result that was broadly in line with expectations, but importantly, it avoided the deterioration in machine uptake that the market had become increasingly nervous about. Management was upbeat on the conference call, and the stock continued to trade well through the session, finishing ~17% higher, albeit off a low base.
