This trend is especially evident if we pull up the chart of one of the world's leading gold miners, Franco Nevada (FNV). Sporting a $14.8 billion market cap, FNV is the 3rd-largest US-listed gold miner by market cap, behind $20 billion Barrick and Newmont Mining.
FNV just made a new all-time high above $81.16, the prior high from August 2016. You can see these price points on the updated chart below (the stock was just below the ATH price when I shared the FNV chart on Twitter). The stock has cleared resistance and has only "blue skies" above.
So the recent strength in gold mining stocks and utilities is reminiscent of early 2016, when these two industries were among the best-performing groups in the market.
The gold miners and utilities enjoyed a strong run through the summer of 2016, then pulled back sharply into early 2017. While utility stocks (XLU) have already gone on to make new highs, the gold miners ETF, GDX, has been treading water. In fact, GDX needs to gain more than 20% to reach its old high.
The recent strength in FNV may be a sign that gold mining stocks are ready to turn higher.
As my friend, Olivier Tischendorf has pointed out, Franco Nevada (FNV) is a gold stock leader that you must follow if you are trading the mining sector.
The biggest components of GDX, Barrick (ABX) and Newmont (NEM) are up around 3% today, but both stocks are trading well below their old highs. They'll have to carry some of the weight and move higher, along with FNV, in order to push the miners ETF into new high territory.
As it stands, FNV is currently outperforming the gold miners ETF and its large cap competitors. That means that Franco Nevada is the stock to own if you want to gain exposure to this new uptrend.
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