John Rubino, [Substack https://rubino.substack.com/ ], joins us to reflect on the reasons why gold, silver, and the precious metals stocks have continued to outshine the macroeconomic turbulence and general market volatility.

We start off discussing the strength in the overall precious metals complex, where silver and the PM stocks have followed gold higher in more an overall flight to safety.  John points out that many companies have had positive Q4 earnings reports and wide margins and that is becoming more obvious to generalist investors that scan for outperforming market segments. The conversation then shifts to which ways these gold stocks and silver stocks should attract more investors, by either returning capital to shareholders by way of dividends or share buys back, or if they should focus on growth through acquisitions and merger transactions.  John wants to see smart transactions, and not just growth for growth’s sake, but feels the building cash reserves of the mining stocks will become large enough that they feel compelled to go out and purchase more mines and more ounces.

We then wrap up reviewing potential paths forward through all the macroeconomic and geopolitical friction with the Trump administration tariffs, in North America, Europe, and Asia, noting the effects on inflation expectations, the sovereign debt loads, immigration, and global trade. There are a mix of different elements creating uncertainty, and factoring into the further buying of gold by both central banks and global citizens in this current macroeconomic environment.

Click here to visit John’s Substack to keep up to date on his market and economic commentary.