Beyond the Headlines: The Fed Could Light a Fuse Under Gold and Silver

In the newest edition of Beyond the Headlines …

What’s Happening: Gold and silver prices are surging in anticipation of rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve at the conclusion of its two-day policy summit on September 17. According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, there’s a 92.1% probability policymakers cut rates.

Why It Matters: Rate cuts make gold and silver a lot more interesting to investors for a bunch of reasons. Unlike stocks, bonds, or cash investments (like money market funds), there’s no income stream from precious metals. So when rates are falling, investors don’t feel as bad about trading out of income-paying investments. Rate cuts can also push down the dollar, which makes gold and silver “cheaper” for foreign investors to buy. And the reason for rate cuts, like slowing hiring, growing joblessness and general worries about the economy, can draw in folks looking for safe-havens for their money.

The Opportunity: Even without rate cuts, we like alternative assets like gold and silver as a hedge against uncertainty. We like silver even better, thanks to its industrial uses (especially here in the Artificial Intelligence Era, where it’s crucial for semiconductor fabrication, circuit boards, signal transmission, heat management, and more).

Last week, for our free readers, we offered a great starting point for your silver research.

And for you paid-up SPC Premium members, we delivered access to our exclusive Silver Dossier that includes two publicly traded silver companies.

The first of those two isn’t a conventional mining company.

In fact, it doesn’t even own a mine. Instead, it’s built a business model that lets it profit from silver without the risks of digging it up.The strategy is working — shares are up more than 80% since we first shared it.

With silver prices continuing to climb, that could be just the beginning for Wealth Builders who take the long view.

What’s Happening: A wave of companies — including Klarna, Gemini, Black Rock Coffee Bar, and Figure Technology — launched U.S. initial public offering “roadshows” last week. This surge tells us that after months of upheaval caused by economic worries that the IPO market is coming back to life. According to Stock Analysis, there have been 232 U.S. IPOs this year, an 83% increase from the same time last year.

Why It Matters: Entrepreneur Mark Cuban recently mused that IPOs have turned into “meme coins” as people pour into the newly listed companies in hopes of a quick payday. Headlines touting fantastical one-day gains for early investors sure aren’t helping. It’s not retail investors scoring those windfalls … it’s the early-stage investors who bought their seat at the table long before the company even went public.

The Opportunity: We’re not anti-IPO here at Stock Picker’s Corner (SPC). After all, today’s heavyweights (from Amazon.com Inc. $AMZN ( ▼ 0.97% )  to Nvidia Corp. $NVDA ( ▲ 0.22% ) ) were yesterday’s IPOs. But we generally don’t cover new publicly traded companies. We know if we don’t rush out and buy shares their first day of trading that we’re not likely to miss out on anything.

Here are the three reasons why it pays to wait on IPO investing …

What’s Happening: Last Friday, the S&P 500 welcomed three new members: Robinhood Markets Inc. $HOOD ( ▼ 1.38% ), a leading fintech known for commission-free trading; AppLovin Corp. $APP ( ▲ 1.55% ), a mobile technology company specializing in app marketing and monetization; and EMCOR Group Inc. $EME ( ▼ 1.19% ), a diversified construction services firm

Why It Matters: Joining the S&P 500 is a major milestone for any company because it signals financial stability, market relevance and investor confidence. It also means the company meets strict criteria for profitability, liquidity and market capitalization. And it makes the company eligible for investment by index funds, pensions and retirement accounts. That can increase visibility, boost demand for the stock and can lead to more stable trading.

The Opportunity: Emcor was one of the original members of our Special-Situation Portfolio, a portfolio reserved and designed for SPC Premium to access research for accelerated returns in a compressed time frame. We liked its role in the AI Era as a leader in energy infrastructure and electrical construction, but as shares zoomed over 60% in less than a year, we decided to take those profits off the table. But even though we sold, we still liked the company’s long-term potential.

P.S. If you missed it, we just released Wealth Builders/Wealth Killers: Keep Your Cool and Win in a Stock Market Built to Break You, on Amazon last week.

In it, you’ll learn:

• Why most investors fail—and how to avoid the “Wealth Killer” mindset.

• How to harness the Retail Investor Advantage most investors don’t know they have.

• The secret to finding the best stocks through powerful storylines.

• Why playing the long game beats chasing quick wins.

• And how to turn market downturns and mass panic into massive opportunities for yourself.

Go here to grab your digital copy.