Precious metals aren't in the basket either, but they set the mood music for the whole sector. Gold tells you how scared and how liquid the money is; silver rides solar as much as safe-haven demand; and the platinum-group metals straddle autocatalysts, hydrogen and pure speculation. When gold runs, risk appetite for junior miners usually drains away — which matters to everything else we cover.
A yieldless rock is near record highs while real assets are supposedly out of fashion. Gold isn't telling you about gold. It's telling you what the smart, nervous money thinks about everything else.