As concerns over the Trump administration’s tariffs and foreign policy mounting, growing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties have led to the erasing of nearly $5 trillion in U.S. equity value in three weeks.
Meanwhile, gold prices soared to record highs above $3,000 per ounce in March 2025, driving mining stocks rapidly higher and rekindling investment in precious metals and related stocks.
The New York Times, Wall Street analysts and the European media have declared that the United States may be facing a “Trump recession”, a manufactured recession driven by a series of aggressive tariff policies and radical economic reforms since Trump took office in January this year. The BCA research even predicts a 75 per cent probability of a US recession in the next three months.
In a recent interview with Kitco News, Feneck Commodities Report Founder and CEO John Feneck said that the major gold ETFs have broken through long-term resistance as the price of gold has rallied, with the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX) now trading near $44.90 after breaking through resistance of $42-43. With GDX set to rise to $50 and then $60 over the next 12 to 18 months, there’s plenty of room for large-cap gold mining stocks to rise.
Meanwhile, the VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ), which focuses on small-cap miners, is also soaring. Feneck believes there’s still plenty of opportunity to make money as the generalist investor starts to get back into the mining space, as many of these gold and silver stocks haven’t really taken off yet.
With gold prices up more than 15 per cent this year to record highs above $3,000 an ounce, investors have become more optimistic that miners will be able to absorb higher costs, expand margins and generate stronger cash flows.
Gold is now expected to trade at an average of $3,063 an ounce in 2025 and $3,350 an ounce in 2026, Bank of America said in a report on Wednesday (26 March). This is a significant increase from previous forecasts of $2,750/oz in 2025 and $2,625/oz in 2026.
Bank of America analysts believe the spot gold price could climb to $3,500 in the next two years if gold investment demand grows by 10 per cent. The report notes that central banks currently hold about 10 per cent of their gold reserves, a figure that could potentially be raised to more than 30 per cent.
In addition to gold, analysts are also bullish on copper. Copper prices topped $11,000 in March and have jumped 27 per cent year-to-date in New York as traders have rushed to ship the metal to the US before the tariff measures are implemented.
Kostas Bintas, Mercuria’s head of metals trading, expects around 500,000 tonnes of copper to be on its way to the US, which would put copper supplies in other global markets in jeopardy. He expects LME copper futures prices could jump to exceed $12,000 a tonne as the shortage intensifies.
