“I should never have switched from scotch to martinis.”
– Humphrey Bogart
Written by Bryan Lutz, Editor at Dollarcollapse.com:
Billionaire Stan Druckenmiller just cracked open an old bottle of golden scotch, and poured himself a glass.
After all, you only need a few sips to enjoy.
Especially, when the alcohol percentage is sitting up around 56%, you know it’s potent enough to light the near future up.
But, occasions to celebrate prosperity only come once in a while.
Druckenmiller is no fool…
He’s buying gold.
Kitco reports:
Druckenmiller bets on the world’s two largest gold producers
“According to updated F-13 regulatory filings, Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office dumped its holdings in Google’s Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOGL), Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) in the fourth quarter of 2023.
As Druckenmiller has pared back his exposure to the tech and ecommerce sectors, he has placed new, albeit smaller, bets in the mining sector. The filings show the investment office bought 1.76 million shares of Barrick Gold (NYSE: GOLD) and 474,000 shares of Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM). At the same time, they increased their exposure to Teck Resources (NYSE: TECK), which represents the fifth biggest investment in the portfolio.
Druckenmiller’s renewed focus on the world’s two largest gold producers brings new attention to a mining sector that has struggled since the start of the year. The VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX) is down nearly 14% so far this year, even as it bounced off its four-week lows earlier this week. GDX last traded at $26.70 an ounce.
Newmont has attracted specific attention as its share price has fallen nearly 20% since Jan. 2. Shares of the world’s largest mining company last traded at $33.12.
Barrick is also down nearly 20% year-to-date, with shares in the second-largest gold miner last trading at $14.41.”
Drunkenmiller’s move to drop tech growth stocks and buy gold is no random event.
America’s biggest tech companies are laying off tens of thousands of people.
Livemint reports:
“Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has opened up about the 12,000-employee layoff the tech giant had undertaken last year. Alphabet laid off around 12,000 employees in 2022, making it the biggest-ever downsizing in the history of the company.”
Google lays off 1,000 workers, union says
“Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – has slashed more than 20,000 jobs. Spotify said in December that it was axing 17% of its global workforce, the music streaming service’s third round of layoffs in 2023 as it moved to slash costs and improve its profitability.”
Even the famous Magnificent Seven could be turning into the Fantastic Five…
All while the discrepancy between the price of gold and the value of gold stocks grows.
You can see the technicals and more commentary in a free video by dollarcollapse.com’s, Dave Skarica.
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Commentary from Dave Skarica:
In today’s chart of the day we look at Newmont mining. In his recent quarterly portfolio update Stan Drunkenmiller said he sold some of his Alphabet stock (GOOGL NASDAQ) and added to positions in Barrick Gold AND Newmont Mining.
This could tell us that Drunkenmiller is starting to get bullish on precious metals as the federal reserve nears cutting rates this spring. As we pointed out, a few weeks ago gold stocks usually perform very well when rate cut cycles start. As we are a matter of months away from a new rate hike cycle someone like Drunkenmiller could be trying to anticipate the rate cut cycle knowing that gold and gold equities perform well.
As for the chart of Newmont I have enclosed a 5 year chart of Newmont. It has been on a wild roller coaster ride. Rallying from $30 to $80 then falling back to $33. What is interesting is Newmont now is trading at the same price it was at in 2019 when gold was $1500 an ounce!!! Also Newmont’s revenues last year were about the same as they were in 2021 when the stock was near $80 a share. It also pays a near 4.5 percent dividend.
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(Dave will be putting together weekly videos and a monthly gold and junior miner portfolio for DC Premium.)
That being said, the gold companies Druckenmiller purchased, Barrick and Newmont are as mainstream as you can go…
Now Druckenmiller, a top non-goldbug, billionaire investor may be showing taking the first mainstream sips of the coming prosperity in gold.
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