Ideas
Resources are early in new boom
The resource sector is in the early stages of a boom. Years of underinvestment in exploration, bankruptcies and liquidations, and weak capital markets in Australia and Canada have created a bottom; commodities are cheap versus equities, China is slowly recovering, gold has strengthened, copper supply is short, AI demand is rising, and geopolitical stockpiling/M&A activity are beginning. This should support resource equities and Australian brokers over the next few years.
Copper shortage supports higher prices
Copper is strategically critical and faces a structural supply shortage because not enough copper mines have been built. AI/technology demand, Chinese stockpiling, geopolitical competition, and potential U.S. acquisitions of South American copper assets should drive a big focus on copper and copper equities.
Rare earths gain strategic importance
Rare earths are becoming a major geopolitical and strategic theme because China controls supply and can use it as a bargaining chip; the U.S. and Trump administration are likely to focus on securing more rare earths, making the theme grow.
Chinese tech equities have arrived
China is fundamentally capitalist under Xi, who is focused on making China great again. U.S. tech restrictions since 2018 forced a rapid industrial/technology transformation; Chinese tech companies, LLMs, EVs and manufacturing are now globally competitive, and Chinese industrial policy executes on time and on budget, creating attractive Chinese equity opportunities.
Chinese aerospace is underappreciated
Chinese aerospace and defense technology is underappreciated after post-2018 precision-manufacturing advances. The global south may increasingly buy Chinese planes and equipment, making this a potential growth opportunity in Chinese aerospace equities, similar to the EV transformation.
Japan reform flywheel drives equities
Japan's corporate-governance reform, initiated under Abenomics and now pressured by TSE rules, is moving from guidelines into full implementation. Companies will raise payout ratios, buy back stock, divest non-core businesses and improve commercial strategies; earnings and dividends have already compounded despite slow sales, creating a broad Japanese equity opportunity.
Japanese small caps offer reform alpha
The biggest Japan alpha is in mid/small caps where many companies own great IP but have not commercialized it. Corporate reform is shifting from balance-sheet optimization to commercial-strategy optimization; the Hello Kitty company example shows the upside when such IP is monetized, and these companies can deliver explosive sales growth.
Japanese banks benefit from rate normalization
Japanese banks should do okay because interest rates are normalizing and mega banks remain cheap; it is not a loan-growth story but a rate-normalization/value story.
Buy SoftBank on IPO upside
He plans to buy SoftBank this year because OpenAI's IPO and other Silicon Valley IPOs could create substantial value, and Masayoshi Son is heavily exposed to that ecosystem. He is waiting for volatility/timing to enter.
Japan defense spending lifts stocks
Japan is increasing defense spending from 1% to 2% of GDP with domestic support and U.S. pressure. Large names like MHI have already moved, but the theme remains good and smaller niche defense suppliers with high market share could deliver bigger upside; he has traded names such as Japan Steel Works that feed into the theme.
Small Japanese defense names can double
Smaller Japanese defense names that have 100% market share in a particular niche could benefit asymmetrically from higher defense spending, with potential double or triple upside versus 20-30% for larger MHI.
Yen is cheap, headed higher
The market's fears about Japanese currency and yields are misplaced; the yen is dirt cheap and headed higher, and Japan's JGB situation is not as bad as bears claim.
Hong Kong becomes Asia's tech hub
Hong Kong could become the NASDAQ of Asia because Chinese tech has arrived and is competitive with or better than Silicon Valley. Expats may return, and Hong Kong should become a major financial/tech hub.
S&P likely tests 7,000
The S&P 500 is in a clear bull trend, has climbed through the holiday period with higher highs/lows, and is likely to test/print the psychologically important 7,000 level; measured moves support upside toward 7,100.
Financials are market leaders
Financials have become a leadership group; they are behaving with proper beta and working higher with the market, led by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and banks broadly.
Defense contractors have heavy flows
Defense contractors/aerospace and defense are in a strong uptrend with clear heavy flows, including General Electric, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Boeing and the broader industrial complex.
Small caps breakout higher
Small caps completed a flagging formation and 50-day retest and broke out, with the move measuring toward 2,750 on the upside; broadening market participation favors small caps.
Equal-weight S&P leads market
The equal-weight S&P 500 has broken out to fresh new highs and is outperforming the market-cap-weighted S&P 500, showing the broader market—not the MAG7—is leading.
Materials and commodities are hot
Materials and commodities are running hot as part of the broadening sector rotation, with Alcoa and other resource names moving higher.
Consumer staples remain weak
Consumer staples have been a bloodbath despite rotation, with General Mills and P&G breaking to lower lows and Costco in a downtrend; only Walmart is working. It may be starting to bottom, but the sector has not shown a durable turn.
Trump protects GM and Ford
GM and Ford are two of the few auto companies you can own because Trump will protect them politically; the administration is favoring American-made cars with interest deductibility, making them a stealth bull market despite poor fundamentals.
MAG7 bearish; selloff just starting
He remains hugely bearish on the MAG7; their selloff is just starting, valuations are extreme, and they can fall by a third to a half, even if the S&P becomes painful.
Avoid S&P, trade broader stocks
He tells people not to bother trading the S&P 500 because it is a tough, dragged-down index; better opportunities are in equal-weight, small caps and individual stocks.
AI suppliers extract more than builders
The AI buildout names are very expensive, but second-order suppliers are extracting more money from the buildout. Memory companies like SanDisk are flying as memory demand and pricing rise, and Intel is getting CPU pricing from AI demand, so true AI-buildout bulls should look at these suppliers.
Volatility insurance is cheap
Volatility insurance is cheap: 3-month VIX around 18 is cheaper than at any point last year, Q1 historically has significant volatility, and the market is complacent about geopolitical risks and a potential MAG7-driven correlation shock. Buy protection before the storm rather than after.
Dollar setup may surprise higher
Everyone expects a weaker dollar, but the dollar has not behaved that way; it has a double bottom/cup-and-handle and a 9-month basing formation and is attempting to move higher. No one is making a dollar-bull case, so it is worth watching as a potential surprise.
Gold bull trend targets 4,900
Gold is in a decisive bull trend, has quickly recovered from a sharp pullback without even testing its 50-day average, and is holding a 50% retrace. The measured move points to 4,900, and gold miners are at 52-week highs.
Silver dips are being bought
Silver went parabolic and had a violent $12 peak-to-trough reversal but immediately rebounded to retest highs, showing strong demand. He converted Big Picture's silver positioning to bull call spreads to keep upside participation with less net delta and more convexity.
Oil dips bought; breakout underway
Oil keeps getting hit by negative news but is bought on dips and stops going down, indicating accumulation and base-building. Today's technical breakout toward December highs plus commodity rebalancing flows could give a bullish tailwind after a nasty 2025 bear market.
Oil services win Venezuela rebuild
Chevron was an immediate Venezuela reaction winner, but the biggest winners may be oil service names like Schlumberger and Halliburton, which would be boots on the ground to rebuild Venezuela's oil industry if Trump gets his way.
Prefer gold over silver
He wants to be biased toward gold rather than silver here because silver's parabolic move is overbought and unpredictable; it might go up $10 but give back $12 in a day, while gold could punch $200 higher.
Prefer gold over silver
He wants to be biased toward gold rather than silver here because silver's parabolic move is overbought and unpredictable; it might go up $10 but give back $12 in a day, while gold could punch $200 higher.
Homebuilders could break out
Trump's $200 billion mortgage-bond buying plan can affect the mortgage market and goose the economy. Homebuilders have been brutally sold/consolidated since 2024, the index woke up on the news, and it could be the start of a new breakout.
VST and Oklo reversal setups
Vistra (VST) and Oklo were directly involved in Meta's nuclear deal; both had vicious multi-month declines and are showing reversal attempts—Vistra trying to reverse higher and Oklo gapping back above its 50-day—so they are worth watching if the uranium/nuclear trade gets a new tailwind.
Uranium is waking up
The Meta nuclear deal woke uranium, and there are rumors the Trump administration may buy uranium at an artificial high price to encourage more mine building. NextGen's NXE tweet suggested this may already be happening, and January rebalancing/broadening market flows also help. Uranium looks great.
REMX breakout targets 100-120
REMX broke out to a higher high after a vicious three-year bear market, and resource-related steel, lithium and aluminum names are working. If REMX follows through it could target 100-120.
Lumber may wake up
Lumber stocks have been left for dead, but they turned on the homebuilder news; with housing stimulus they could be about to wake up.
Agriculture stocks may be turning
The MOO agribusiness index has been sideways and may be about to break. Nutrien and ADM are near highs, Mosaic is beaten down, and John Deere's CEO forecast a 2026 ag bull market; ag stocks are cheap and left behind, so a turnaround is worth watching.
This The Market Huddle video, published January 11, 2026,
features Mateen Chaudhry, Kevin Muir, Patrick Ceresna
discussing DBC, Australian resource equities, COPPER, REMX, CQQQ, FXI, Chinese aerospace equities, EWJ, Japanese small/mid-cap equities, DXJ, SFTBY, Japanese defense stocks, 5631.T, Japanese small-cap defense stocks, FXY, Hong Kong equities, SPY, XLF, ITA, IWM, SP:SPXEW, XLB, XLP, GM, F, MAGS, SMH, SNDK, INTC, VIX, USD, GLD, GDX, SILVER, WTI, OIH, SLB, HAL, XHB, VST, OKLO, URA, CCJ, NXE, WOOD, MOO.
38 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers:
Mateen Chaudhry,
Kevin Muir,
Patrick Ceresna
· Tickers:
DBC,
Australian resource equities,
COPPER,
REMX,
CQQQ,
FXI,
Chinese aerospace equities,
EWJ,
Japanese small/mid-cap equities,
DXJ,
SFTBY,
Japanese defense stocks,
5631.T,
Japanese small-cap defense stocks,
FXY,
Hong Kong equities,
SPY,
XLF,
ITA,
IWM,
SP:SPXEW,
XLB,
XLP,
GM,
F,
MAGS,
SMH,
SNDK,
INTC,
VIX,
USD,
GLD,
GDX,
SILVER,
WTI,
OIH,
SLB,
HAL,
XHB,
VST,
OKLO,
URA,
CCJ,
NXE,
WOOD,
MOO
