Materials
Materials ETF Has Best Week in 7 Years as Fed Goes Dovish

Materials ETF Has Best Week in 7 Years as Fed Goes Dovish

Stocks like chemical makers and gold miners have struggled for much of the year, but now they're ripping amid hopes of Federal Reserve rate cuts. The SPDR Materials ETF (XLB) is up almost 8 percent since Friday, putting it on pace for its best week since December...

Bears Linger in Debt Laden Steelmaker: Options Recap

Bears Linger in Debt Laden Steelmaker: Options Recap

Steelmakers keep struggling, and now bears are looking for one of the weakest names to drop. AK Steel (AKS) has lost more than half its value in the last year, making it one of worst-performing names in one of the worst-performing industries. Its debt load exceeds...

Gold Miner ETF Shines With Market Dreading a Slowdown

Gold Miner ETF Shines With Market Dreading a Slowdown

The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) is rallying as investors worry about growth and interest rates fall. GDX is up about 2 percent since last Friday, making it one of the best-performing major exchange-traded funds (ETF). The big move occurred on Wednesday after...

Comex Gold Futures: Contract of the Week

Comex Gold Futures: Contract of the Week

Gold's one of the world's oldest measures of value. It's also one of of the most actively traded commodities, thanks to CME's Comex Gold Futures. These contracts use the symbol root GC and track 100 troy ounces of gold. That means every point represents $100 of change...

Mr. Powell and the Punch Bowl

Mr. Powell and the Punch Bowl

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will answer a lot of questions in the Senate this week. But they all come down to one issue: Will he take away the punch bowl, or fill it up? If you don't know the lingo, we're talking about interest rates. The old saying is that...

Metals on the Move as Dollar Takes a Hit

Metals on the Move as Dollar Takes a Hit

Metals came back from the long weekend with a bang as money poured into gold and copper. Globex's gold futures (@GC) traded almost 333,000 contracts yesterday, the busiest session since October 11. Prices also advanced 1.7 percent, their biggest gain of the...

Guess What Chart Just Had a ‘Golden Cross’

Guess What Chart Just Had a ‘Golden Cross’

A potentially bullish signal has appeared in gold as the market anticipates dovish policy from the Federal Reserve. The 50-day moving average on gold futures (@GC) rose through the 200-day moving average this week. That pattern, ironically known as a "golden cross,"...

Bulls Target Coca Cola and Silver Options

Bulls Target Coca Cola and Silver Options

What do a soft-drink giant and a precious metal fund have in common? They both have bullish options trades today, that's what. Let's start with Coca-Cola (KO). The soda maker is one of the few members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average with a gain so far this year or...

Is This Precious Metal Too Cheap?

Is This Precious Metal Too Cheap?

Political uncertainty and economic jitters have lifted precious metals recently. But which has more upside potential? Silver futures (@SI) are trading near their cheapest ratio to gold futures (@GC) in over 16 years. History may suggest their valuation gap will narrow...