The Charts of The Week: Silver, Platinum, Rare Earths, & Equity Melt-Ups
It was a powerful week across markets with breakouts in silver, platinum, and US small-cap equities.
This week we saw breakouts in platinum, silver, and US small caps as represented by the Russell 2000 (IWM). In addition, rare earths stocks gained momentum late in the week as it became increasingly evident that the US/China trade tension is increasing.
A couple weeks ago, I highlighted the technical/fundamental setup in platinum as being particularly intriguing. This week we saw the beginning of a long-awaited breakout above $1100 resistance in platinum:
Platinum (Weekly)
One of the factors that I pointed to in May is rising demand for platinum due to its large valuation gap to gold. It appears that we are beginning to see catch-up buying in both platinum and silver. With gold prices at record highs, investors and jewelry consumers are turning to platinum as a more affordable alternative.
Silver (Weekly)
Silver made its first weekly close above $35/oz since 2012 - the breakout from a 9+ month consolidation between $28.50 and $35 targets $40+. With gold trading around $3,300/oz, a reversion back to a longer term average gold/silver ratio of ~85-1 would equate to a silver price near $39/oz.
Rare earths stock Neo Performance Materials (TSX:NEO) rallied 17.25% for the week as the company announced a share buyback for up to ~10% of the public trading float:
NEO.TO (Daily)
NEO stated:
“Neo believes that its Shares have been trading in a price range which does not adequately reflect the value of such shares in relation to the business of Neo and its future business prospects. As a result, depending upon future price movements and other factors, Neo believes that its outstanding Shares may represent an attractive investment to Neo. Furthermore, the purchases are expected to benefit all persons who continue to hold Shares by increasing their equity interest in Neo.”
NEO specializes in advanced industrial materials that are integral to various modern technologies, particularly those promoting sustainability and efficiency. Headquartered in Toronto, NEO operates globally with manufacturing and R&D facilities across North America, Europe, and Asia. NEO’s rare earths segment focuses on sourcing, refining, and marketing high-value specialty metals like tantalum, niobium, hafnium, rhenium, gallium, and indium. These metals are critical for aerospace, electronics, and superalloy applications.
Despite a ‘friendly’ call between Trump and Xi on Thursday, the Washington Post noted that China is unlikely to loosen its grip over the export of rare earths needed to manufacture electric vehicles, fighter jets and microchips. Based upon my research, NEO is one of the higher quality publicly traded rare earths stocks; NEO is a profitable company with US$77.3 million in cash and a very strong working capital position.
USA nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE explorer/developer Talon Metals (TSX:TLO, OTC:TLOFF) rose 33.33% on the heaviest weekly trading volume in the history of the company:
TLO.TO (Weekly)
On Thursday morning, Talon delivered an extraordinary drill intercept totaling 47.33 meters grading 21.40% nickel-equivalent. I covered the Talon news here and here. At Thursday morning’s high, TLO shares had risen more than 300% from their March lows. From September 2024 through March 2025, Talon churned a lot of volume below $.10/share, that means many investors are sitting on large gains after Talon’s May/June rally. Therefore, it is natural to see the sort of heavy volume churning that we witnessed during Thursday and Friday’s trading sessions.
Investors will be anxiously awaiting further updates from Talon, including: 1. Complete assays for hole 63 2. Any additional color on expanded BHEM surveys of the new MSU discovery zone 3. Additional drilling to further delineate this new high-grade zone.
Turning to the broader equities market, we continue to see an equity market melt-up fueled by corporate buybacks, CTAs increasing net length, and short covering driven by hedge fund gross deleveraging.
IWM (Daily)
Equities are impervious to Trump/Musk Twitter spats, deteriorating US employment data (rising unemployment rate and rising downward revisions to prior months employment data), and a conspicuous lack of US trade deals.
Finally, I’d like to point out a trade setup that’s on my radar:
ALB (Daily)
Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) is down ~50% in the last year. ALB’s troubles have attracted a swarm of short sellers with ALB’s short interest swelling to 16.1% currently. Albemarle is currently trading below book value (.9x book value) with open gaps in the chart up at $66.50 and $72.25.
ALB has suffered along with the brutal lithium bear market that has played out over the last few years. While the trade setup is attractive to me largely due to the high short interest and potential chart pattern bottom, I can envision a scenario in which a China stimulus program targeting EVs, batteries, and/or broader green tech industries helps to abate lithium’s decline. Such a scenario could easily trigger a 20%-30% rally in ALB shares.
Disclosure: Author owns ALB, NEO.TO, and TLO.TO at the time of publishing and may choose to buy or sell at any time without notice.
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