The Premier of Ontario shelled out C$75 million of taxpayer money for a high-profile anti-tariff ad campaign during the World Series, only to hit the pause button when trade talks with the US were abruptly suspended. 

Maybe the smarter play would’ve been just to enjoy watching the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers battle it out in the Fall Classic. Stepping back from scoring points on the political scoreboard would’ve been the best way to avoid striking out.

In the Weekly Market Digest, cooling inflation and optimism around a de-escalation in US-China trade tensions lifted broad US equities, along with energy and base metals. But that same easing of macro stress gave traders an excuse to take profits in gold and silver, pulling precious metals and the equities levered to them back from overbought territory. 

Against that backdrop, the Exploration Insights portfolio finished last week modestly down, in line with the base metal equity ETF and notably better than the precious metal one. 

In The Rant, I break down the reasons copper remains well-supported, from supply disruptions to the geological factors driving a renewed focus on hypogene enrichment in Andean porphyry systems.

In Stock Talk, I take a closer look at the updated PFS from a copper developer in southern Arizona, plus updates from a precious metals grassroots explorer in Nevada and a base metal one in Serbia.