November 8, 2026
Bonus Content: Barrick’s Earnings Land Inside a Margin Squeeze
Dear reader,
Most investors wait for the government press conference.
I follow the money before the cameras show up.
And the money trail now leads straight to one tiny nickel stock.
Its U.S. platform has already been selected for $135.4 million in disclosed federal grants: $114.8 million tied to a domestic processing facility and another $20.6 million supporting exploration in Minnesota and Michigan.
That is not a prediction. That’s money already disclosed.
The next step is my forecast: I believe Washington could eventually go further and take an equity stake.
It may never happen. But the U.S. has already shown it is willing to put taxpayer capital directly into strategic mineral companies. And this company now controls the only primary nickel mine operating in America.
Meanwhile, Tesla has locked in a six-year supply agreement, and America remains dangerously exposed to foreign nickel supply.
Russia, China, and Indonesia have leverage because the United States allowed its domestic pipeline to wither.
This little company is one of the few credible ways to fight back.
That’s why I bought 10,000 shares before any equity announcement.
I am not promising Washington will buy in. I am saying the grants, the operating mine, the Tesla agreement, and the strategic pressure form a setup I refuse to ignore.
Click here to learn more about the $5 nickel stock I believe Washington could target next.
Yours for peace, prosperity, and liberty, AEIOU,
Dr. Mark Skousen
Macroeconomic Strategist, The Oxford Club
P.S. Washington has already backed this platform with $135.4 million in disclosed grants.
If an equity stake comes next, I believe a stock this small could move violently.
I refuse to wait for the press conference.
Click here to reveal details on what I bought before Washington makes its next move.
Barrick’s Earnings Land Inside a Margin Squeeze
When gold slid from its late-January 2026 all-time high, most of the coverage fixated on the chart. Monday’s Barrick earnings are where the real accounting happens.
The Big Question
The debate among institutional gold investors right now is not whether gold’s bull market is over. It is whether the drawdown has broken the earnings case for the producers. That is a sharper question, and Barrick’s Q3 income statement, due before the open on November 9, is the first place to test it at scale.
Why Wall Street Cares
Gold mining stocks carry operating leverage to the metal price. When gold rises, margins expand faster than revenue because a large portion of the cost base is fixed. The reverse is equally true. Barrick ran an all-in sustaining cost of $1,708 per ounce in Q1 2026, the quarter it realized an average gold price of $4,823 per ounce. That is a gross margin of roughly $3,115. By Q2, realized prices had retreated to $4,417 while AISC climbed to $1,866, compressing margin to approximately $2,551 per ounce. Now comes Q3, where the consensus pegs Barrick’s average realized price at $4,263. Against a cost base guided at $1,760 to $1,950 for the full year, that is a further $150-plus squeeze from Q2 alone. From Q1 to that Q3 consensus, Barrick has given back more than $500 per ounce of margin in two quarters.
The Bull Case
The structural argument for gold producers remains intact, at least on paper. Reuters reported this week that Goldman Sachs cut its year-end 2026 gold target to $4,150 from $4,650, while keeping a constructive longer-term view. Barrick’s production is growing sequentially and was guided to peak in Q4. If costs hold inside the low end of guidance, the company earns real money even at $4,100 gold.
The Bear Case
Goldman’s December rate-hike call is the near-term problem. Traders now price roughly a 70% to 80% chance the Fed moves again in December, depending on the tool you look at and the time of day. Barrick’s cost structure has trended the wrong direction: AISC rose 11% year over year in Q2. At current gold prices near $4,050, margins have compressed to roughly $2,184 per ounce, less than 70% of their Q1 peak. Any further cost creep in Q3 makes that number worse before it gets better.
The cost-inflation problem is not unique to gold miners. Primary silver producers posting results against a tightening structural supply deficit face the same AISC pressure squeezing margins across the precious-metals sector.
What Investors Are Missing
The asymmetry in analyst models. Barrick has disclosed a cost sensitivity of $5 per ounce for every $100 per ounce move in gold price. That sounds modest until you apply it. A $600 per ounce price retreat from Q1 reduces the AISC metric by only about $30 per ounce, while the revenue line falls the full $600. The leverage cuts both ways and the income statement magnifies it.
Stocks to Watch
- Barrick (B) reports Monday and owns the near-term read on sector margins.
- Newmont (NEM) faces identical cost-versus-price math with a heavier AISC burden, making it more exposed to further weakness.
- Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM) and Franco-Nevada (FNV), as streaming companies, carry fixed contractual costs rather than mine-operating exposure, so their margins compress far less in a drawdown, which is precisely why institutional capital has rotated toward them.
- GDX, trading around $87.60 as of November 6, gives the blended picture: broadly flat year to date, masking a wide dispersion between operators and streamers. That spread is the investment debate.
