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This Lithium Stock Could Build Generational Wealth

October 25, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

SQM stock is a terrific value, and the lithium miner's dividends are electrifying

Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM) stock is trading at a very reasonable value, and the company’s financials are outstanding.
The company expects to sell massive quantities of high-need lithium this year.
Investors can look to SQM stock as an intriguing, pure play on the lithium boom of the 2020s.

Here’s a name you might not be very familiar with: Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE:SQM). That’s a mouthful, but SQM stock could have generational wealth-building potential as the company extracts vast quantities of lithium.

This will be essential for electric vehicles and especially their batteries in the coming years. As we’ll see, Sociedad Quimica’s financial growth already indicates a powerful upward trajectory for the company, and for the global lithium industry in general.

Sociedad Quimica is a Chilean mining company, and some traders might not have much experience with international investments. However, you’re encouraged to venture outside of your comfort zone today.

After all, the EV revolution is an unstoppable phenomenon that has no borders. EV battery manufacturers will need a whole lot of lithium – and Sociedad Quimica is more than happy to meet the insatiable demand for the crucial white metal.

What’s Happening with SQM Stock?

Even though many stocks have underperformed in 2022 so far, SQM stock was firmly in the green as of Oct. 21. Perhaps the trading community is finally waking up to the supply-versus-demand imbalance in the lithium market.

Or, maybe some investors are actually venturing outside of U.S.-based commodities businesses to look for outstanding values. Sociedad Quimica certainly fits this description, as the company’s trailing 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is quite reasonable at 12.91.

Maybe some income-focused investors are making their move with SQM stock, as well. We can’t really blame them, as Sociedad Quimica pays an extremely generous forward annual dividend yield of 12.52%.

Besides, if you’re looking for a highly active, pure-play lithium miner, you won’t do much better than Sociedad Quimica. If you can believe it, the company expects its 2022 lithium sales volume to reach approximately 145,000 tons.

[Alert: 1-Stock With Potential 10x Gains (Yes, Even In This Market)]

Growth Isn’t Reflected in SQM Shares, Yet

Suffice it to say that Sociedad Quimica is among the world’s most ambitious lithium producers. Impressively, Sociedad Quimica increased its lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide production from “approximately 45,000 metric tons per year to 150,000 metric tons in the past three years.”

Has this lithium production ramp-up resulted in firmer financials for Sociedad Quimica? The answer is definitely yes, and there’s data to prove it.

During 2022’s second quarter, Sociedad Quimica’s total revenue jumped 342% year-over-year (YOY) to nearly $2.6 billion. That’s just an appetizer, though. During the same time frame, Sociedad Quimica posted multiple data points indicating outstanding financial growth:

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Gross profit up 598% to $1.3 billion
Net income up 857% to $859 million
Adjusted adjusted earnings before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) up 531% to $1.3 billion
Earnings per share up 857% to $3.01

And here’s the real kicker: On a YOY basis, Sociedad Quimica’s lithium-segment revenue soared 1,033% to roughly $1.8 billion. Given these startling stats, it’s surprising that SQM stock hasn’t moved more than it actually did during the past 12 months.

What You Can Do Now

It’s possible that Sociedad Quimica’s moon-shot moment will happen in the near future. Sometimes, the market just needs time to fully appreciate the value of an asset.

Of all the world’s lithium producers, Sociedad Quimica is among the most active and financially fruitful. Even stubborn skeptics can’t deny the company’s revenue and profit growth. So, for compelling value, hefty dividend payments and a pure play on the fast-expanding lithium market, feel free to start a position in SQM stock.

[Nomi Prins: 10x Gains on a Small Firm Disrupting a Critical American Industry]

On the date of publication, Louis Navellier had a long position in SQM. Louis Navellier did not have (either directly or indirectly) any other positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

The InvestorPlace Research Staff member primarily responsible for this article did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

Energy Crisis: The Best Way to Profit from Rising Costs

September 28, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

(Russian) Winter Is Coming

During the summer, the European Union (EU) announced plans to ban seaborne imports of Russian crude oil from December 5. And it said it will impose a ban on petroleum product imports starting on February 5 next year.

If and when these bans are implemented, they will have a knock-on effect on all energy prices across the globe.

But there’s more…

[Alert: 1-Stock With Potential 10x Gains (Yes, Even In This Market)]

Recently, the leaders of the EU and other G7 nations decided to try to limit Russia’s oil revenues. They proposed a price cap of between $40 and $60 a barrel on Russian oil. This would also come into effect on December 5.

The Group of 7 – or G7 – comprises Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

To say that Russia doesn’t like these proposals would be putting it mildly.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he will make Europe freeze and turn off the gas valves to any country that imposes price caps.

It remains to be seen whether he makes good on his promise if a price cap is imposed. After all, Russia is no stranger to empty threats.

For example, about six months ago, it demanded that all payments for natural gas be made in its local currency, the ruble, or it would cut supplies. This was to prop up its then-falling currency.

The EU countries refused. This caused a spike in natural gas prices.

In the end, however, Russia backed down… silently. Why? Because it couldn’t afford to cut off the flow of those juicy gas dollars.

It’s very hard to predict how this will play out. If Russia’s war in Ukraine has shown us anything, it is that Putin can be unpredictable.

And the EU and G7 must tread a fine line between forcing Russia to abandon its “special operation” in Ukraine and keeping the lights on in Europe and around the world.

Heads of government from almost every country in the world have gathered in New York this week for the 77th United Nations General Assembly. The energy crisis and the situation in Ukraine are top of the agenda.

Unsurprisingly, Vladimir Putin is not in attendance, although he has sent his foreign minister to the event.

Energy Prices Will Continue to Rise This Winter

The way things currently stand, the rise in natural gas prices is unlikely to be fully resolved in the short term.

And it’s destined to build into a crisis here this winter.

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According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, we generate 38% of our electricity from natural gas.

When the weather gets colder, demand for natural gas-fueled electricity will rise. And in general, colder weather increases demand for natural gas for heating. This is true in both the residential and commercial sectors. That puts upward pressure on prices.

And if the weather becomes unexpectedly cold or harsh, price spikes can intensify.

This means less natural gas would be available for storage. And this, in turn, would lead to higher prices as countries scramble to replenish their depleted natural gas reserves. It’s a vicious circle.

And I’m sure we all remember what happened in February 2021, when extreme weather conditions in Texas closed down U.S. oil refineries and plunged millions of Americans into darkness. Energy prices across the country soared as a result.

What This Means for You and Your Money

The good news is that the EU has already managed to fill 85% of its natural gas storage from alternative sources. As a result, natural gas prices there have pulled back somewhat from their recent peak.

But they still remain more than double where they were in January 2022, before Russia invaded Ukraine.

And the ongoing uncertainty means energy prices will likely stay elevated into 2023.

A good way to position yourself in the short term is with an energy-related exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The United States 12 Month Natural Gas Fund (UNL) tracks natural gas price movements.

Regards,

Nomi Prins
Editor, Inside Wall Street with Nomi Prins

P.S. As I said in my essay today and yesterday, the energy crisis on the other side of the Atlantic won’t stay on the other side of the Atlantic…

As the contagion spreads from Europe to America and from the energy markets to the financial system – a portion of your retirement could be at great risk.

[Nomi Prins: 10x Gains on a Small Firm Disrupting a Critical American Industry]

The Main Reason Behind the Energy Crisis in Europe…

September 27, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

Why Europe Loves Natural Gas

One of the main factors driving the energy crisis in Europe is the rise in natural gas prices.

Europe loves natural gas. It gets about a quarter of its energy from it.

And what’s not to love?

It’s a superior form of fuel to oil and coal because of its energy density.

Natural gas is versatile. You can use it to heat your home or to spin a turbine and produce electricity. You can use it to power home cooking appliances and vehicles.

You can also use it to make fertilizer. And that’s crucial for the food production industry, as I wrote a few months ago.

Natural gas also produces less pollution than some other fuels. It emits about half as much carbon dioxide as coal, for example.

The upshot is that European nations wanted to move away from the dirtier, polluting fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, and, in some cases (think Germany), nuclear. So it had every incentive to fall in love with natural gas.

But there was a problem…

You see, there are two ways to move natural gas around. The first is by sea, using liquified natural gas (LNG) carriers.

This option requires an export facility to chill the natural gas down until it becomes liquid. It is then pumped onto these giant boats and shipped across the world.

Then on the other end, you need an import terminal to re-gasify it. All this infrastructure takes billions to make and years to construct.

The second option is much simpler. It involves transporting natural gas via pipeline.

Europe chose the easier way. It imported natural gas from Russia through pipelines.

Russia was right next door, after all. And it produced lots of natural gas.

[Alert: 1-Stock With Potential 10x Gains (Yes, Even In This Market)]

From Nord Stream to No Stream

Until recently, Russia was a major exporter of natural gas to the rest of Europe. Last year, the European Union (EU) got roughly 45% of its imported natural gas from Russia, according to the International Energy Agency.

Russian gas reaches Europe via a complex network of pipelines running through eastern Europe.

The most important pipeline is Nord Stream 1. It’s approximately 1,200 kilometers long and runs under the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany. Up to 170 million cubic meters of gas can flow through Nord Stream 1 daily.

Since it became operational in 2011, more than 441 billion cubic meters of Russian gas have flowed to Europe via Nord Stream 1.

In 2021, Europe imported 155 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia. Nearly 40% – 59 billion cubic meters – came through Nord Stream 1.

Nord Stream 1 is owned and operated by Nord Stream AG, whose majority shareholder is the Russian state company Gazprom.

For years, Nord Stream 1 has embodied the tacit deal between Russia and the European Union.

Russia was willing to supply copious amounts of natural gas at favorable prices. It developed infrastructure to take its gas to Europe.

Europe built industries that depend on that cheap supply of Russian gas. And industrial powerhouses, like Germany, built their entire economies around it.

But then, earlier this year, Russia went to war with Ukraine. That changed everything.

The EU slapped Russia with unprecedented sanctions. Russia retaliated by cutting the flow of natural gas via Nord Stream 1 by about 60%.

Then during its annual scheduled maintenance this summer, the pipeline flow dropped to zero. When it came back online, it came back at 40% capacity before dropping to 20%.

Then, at the end of August, Russia shut down the pipeline again, supposedly for maintenance. This shutdown was to last three days. But at writing, the pipeline remains offline.

Russia’s Endgame Could Mean Lights Out for Europe

As a result of all these actions, the European gas price went parabolic this summer. At one point, it cost $340 per megawatt-hour (MWh). That’s 312% higher than in January 2022, before Russia invaded Ukraine.

You can see the huge spike in natural gas prices that coincided with the Nord Stream 1 shutdown in the chart below.

[Don't Miss: Enrique Abeyta Prediction – My #1 EV Stock for 2022]

Now, while the price has dropped back somewhat in recent weeks, as Europe secures alternative supplies, the uncertainty surrounding their natural gas supply is a huge concern for the eurozone countries.

Consider this…

At about $12 per megawatt-hour (MWh) in November 2021, the eurozone’s energy import costs were $200 billion. That’s 1.6% of its GDP.

If gas settles at about $200 per MWh, this number will increase by roughly $700 billion to 7% of GDP.

At $300 per MWh, it would rise by about $900 billion. That’s a crippling 8.5% of its GDP.

So, Russia’s endgame is simple – to keep gas prices as high as possible to inflict maximum pain on Europe, so it eases off on sanctions.

Energy Rations Becoming a Reality

The way things are going, it looks inevitable that Europe will have to ration gas and energy come winter.

Germany is already discussing its options. German politicians are trying to decide how German industry will be prioritized. Difficult questions are being asked.

Questions like… Who gets the gas when there is a shortage? Who has to close the shop?

But whichever way they slice it, it will likely end up plunging Europe’s largest economy into crisis.

And if that happens, the entire European Union – and potentially the entire world – is in trouble.

Tomorrow, in the second part of this two-part essay, I’ll show you how to turn rising energy prices into profits in your portfolio.

Regards,

Nomi Prins
Editor, Inside Wall Street with Nomi Prins

[Nomi Prins: 10x Gains on a Small Firm Disrupting a Critical American Industry]

Big News for the Next Generation of Electric Vehicle Batteries

September 21, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

It’s been a while since we had a look at the backlog of container ships waiting to unload their cargo at the Port of Los Angeles. The Pacific Ocean near Los Angeles, and San Francisco for that matter, looked like a parking lot during the pandemic… I saw it with my own eyes flying overhead to/from the West Coast.

I thought it might be interesting for us to check in and see what things are like today…

Not surprisingly, there has been a long decline in the queue of container ships since February of this year. The pandemic is clearly over, and logistics teams got back to work clearing out containers on the dock and returning to more normal operations.

August was still busy, with a queue of about 25 ships, but what happened in the last few weeks has been striking. At the start of this month, the queue had dropped to just eight ships, an all-time record low.

That might sound like a good thing. After all, the queue was a symptom of the lack of labor to both unload containers from ships, clear those containers through customs, and haul them out of the port via trucks to distribution centers. Finally, it appears that this backlog has cleared… which means that lead times for goods coming from Asia should quickly return back to pre-pandemic levels.

But the busy August masked what’s really going on. Container imports to the U.S. have collapsed 36% year-over-year. The rapid decline began in May, and it’s really starting to show in the numbers.

What does it mean? There’s an excess in inventories in consumer goods in the U.S., which make up more than 75% of all imports. With “real” inflation much higher than the consumer price index (CPI), discretionary spending has collapsed… and with it, demand.

Imports are suffering as a result. And it’s easy to see the weakening economy now that the Port of Los Angeles has cleared out its container backlog. There’s no hiding it now.

Sadly, even with excess inventories and rapidly declining freight costs, prices for goods and services will remain at elevated levels well into 2023. But on the bright side, the days of 6-month lead times, or not being able to find that PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, should be well behind us.

[Nomi Prins: 10x Gains on a Small Firm Disrupting a Critical American Industry]

A new player enters the fray to power EVs…

A very interesting company in Utah just came out of stealth mode – Ionic Mineral Technologies. This one caught my eye because it could be big news for the next generation of electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Ionic Mineral Technologies mines halloysite – a mineral it uses to produce “nano-silicon.”

That’s possible because halloysite is an aluminum-silicate clay that naturally occurs with a nano-tubular structure. This quality makes it a great resource for producing high-quality nano-silicon as a material input for EV batteries.

We’ve written a lot in The Bleeding Edge about solid-state batteries. There is an extensive list of companies working on that technology. And most design their batteries with silicon anodes instead of graphite ones (the typical approach for lithium-ion batteries).

This is important for two big reasons…

First, compared to graphite, silicon anodes provide greater energy density (i.e., charge capacity).

This is key for solving a major issue holding back EV ownership – limited range. Silicon anodes enable people to travel further with these batteries before needing to recharge.

And second, a big EV owner complaint is the 30-45 minutes it takes for their cars to charge. The reality is that most EV owners don’t have access to a 240-volt charger at their home or apartment.

With silicon anode batteries, it’s possible to charge an EV to 80% capacity in about five minutes… a fraction of the time.

But these silicon anodes aren’t perfect. They suffer one major challenge. Silicon swells and contracts during the charge and discharge stages. And dendrites are formed during this process which can, in the worst case, lead to fires.

That’s where Ionic comes into play. It believes its nano-silicon will be a game changer with solid-state batteries. This nano-silicon material has the potential to address this swelling problem.

That’s why I’m going to be keeping an eye on Ionic. I’ll be watching in particular to see if any of the leading-edge EV battery companies begin to adopt the nano-silicon material.

Ionic is unique in that it owns the resource for producing nano-silicon. The company controls 2.4 million tons of halloysite resources in Utah. This is the world’s largest deposit of high-purity halloysite.

The company expects its Utah-based manufacturing plant will be up and running by the end of Q2 next year. Then it will have the capacity to produce tens of thousands of tons of nano-silicon a year that it can sell to battery makers.

And since Ionic is building its plant on U.S. soil, this will help domestic supply chains secure materials. It’s yet another piece in the Great Recalibration I’ve been writing about in these pages, and it’s potentially great news for domestic EV makers.

So this company could be revolutionary for solid-state EV batteries, especially if designs start incorporating its nano-silicon material.

[Breakthrough Tech: New Vehicle Shocks EV Market]

eVTOL technology continues gaining momentum…

We’ll continue with another frequent topic in these pages – electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs).

United Airlines just stepped up and made a firm commitment for purchasing more electric air taxis.

Last year, we covered its $1 billion order for eVTOLs from Archer Aviation. This August, United paid out $10 million of that payment for the first 100 eVTOLs from Archer Aviation.

Well, now United is upping the ante for its electric air taxi fleet. The airline just ordered another 200 taxis from Eve Air Mobility, with an option to buy 200 more.

This order came as United invested $15 million into Eve Air. So it clearly sees something it likes… and is hedging its bets.

Now, keep in mind that this is not a recommendation for Eve Air (EVEX). Currently, it has an enterprise value of $2.9 billion, yet it’s years away from any kind of material revenue. It’s currently trading at a valuation that reflects about 63 times forward 2025 annual revenue estimates. And it’s going to be bleeding cash until that time. It will most certainly require additional financing that will further dilute shareholders.

So while this isn’t an interesting investment opportunity right now, it is still a company to watch. Major airlines are pairing up with their eVTOL partners in preparation for what they believe is coming.

The future of transportation includes how air transportation is changing. It’s not just about supersonic aircraft like the kind of technology that Boom Supersonic is pursuing. It’s also about the kinds of short hops that eVTOLs can support.

These air taxis can carry three or four passengers about 150 miles. This could enable people to commute to work from a rural area into a city.

Or people could use them to travel from one part of a city to another. Los Angeles or New York City are perfect examples. They have so much traffic, it can be miserable and inefficient getting around.

So people could opt for eVTOLs for convenience in congested cities. We could take an eVTOL right to JFK airport, bypassing all the traffic.

And these electric vehicles are emission-free, which will make them attractive to some. Once we have clean energy generation to power them, these aircraft could be a “green” option for transportation.

Regardless, this is yet another example of the gaining momentum in eVTOL technology. We’ve come a long way in a few short years…

And it won’t be long until we could start seeing more of these aircraft in the skies where we live. I doubt we’ll have to wait much longer than 2025-2026 before there is widespread use of this technology.

[Don't Miss: Enrique Abeyta Prediction – My #1 EV Stock for 2022]

Starlink goes live in Antarctica…

A couple weeks ago, we had another look at Starlink – a division of SpaceX – partnering with T-Mobile in enabling remote cell phone coverage.

Now, Starlink has launched service availability in all seven continents.

That’s because its service just arrived at McMurdo Station on the coast of Antarctica, delivering high-speed broadband to the outpost.

That’s huge because McMurdo historically hasn’t had enough bandwidth to run all its scientific programs. Internet bandwidth has been rationed and in high demand at such a remote location.

What’s interesting about the deployment in Antarctica isn’t just Starlink’s availability. It’s actually how SpaceX is making it happen.

The issue at hand is that there aren’t any ground stations connected to fiber optic networks in Antarctica. So SpaceX is accomplishing this high speed broadband internet connection using space lasers. Cool, right? The lasers allow for high-speed connections between satellites.

So rather than beaming up from a ground station to a Starlink satellite and back down to Antarctica, Starlink uses space lasers to send data back and forth between other Starlink satellites until it is in range of a ground station (for example in Australia).

While the world sees Starlink has a satellite-based internet provider, I believe that the endgame is to create a space-based, interplanetary, body backhaul network. That’s the big play.

The backhaul network is only possible with a laser-enabled communication system from satellite to satellite. That way, Starlink will need fewer ground stations and be able to provide coverage to places where ground stations aren’t an option or simply don’t make any sense.

Is this the beginning of interstellar broadband infrastructure? Musk is crazy enough, and smart enough, to put something like that together.

This will be a vast improvement for people who live in rural areas and developing countries – as well as remote locations like Antarctica… or even the Moon. And needless to say, it will put Starlink and SpaceX in an enviable position.

Regards,

Jeff Brown
Editor, The Bleeding Edge.

[Exclusive: 1st Gas Station In America To No-Longer Offer Gas]

Read more from Jeff Brown at BrownstoneResearch.com

How Investors Can Profit from the Global Rise in Energy Costs…

September 15, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

Nuclear Power Is Back on the Agenda

Now, during my years as an investment banker, I traveled frequently to Japan. And when I became an investigative journalist and then an author, I continued that pattern.

In 2016, I was even invited to give a speech at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It was right after the election of President Trump. I spoke about the impact of this on central bank policy and the markets.

Right now, like the rest of the world, Japan is facing an energy crisis.

[Exclusive: 1st Gas Station In America To No-Longer Offer Gas]

The government there has already urged people to turn off lights in unused rooms. And in Tokyo, residents were asked to take steps such as watch less TV and switch off the heater function on toilet seats.

And winter is coming, bringing with it more demands on Japan’s already scarce supply of electricity.

Earlier this summer, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced plans to restart some of the country’s idled nuclear power plants.

You’ll recall from my previous essay that after the meltdown at its Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011, Japan significantly curtailed its nuclear energy program.

It shut down most of its 54 nuclear reactors, cutting off nearly 30% of the country’s electricity supply.

Now, a small number of reactors came back online or were given the go-ahead to resume operations in recent years.

But Kishida said he wants to have up to nine reactors up and running by this winter. These will supply roughly 10% of Japan’s power consumption.

And he followed this up with another announcement last month. He wants to have 17 nuclear power plants back online by the summer of 2023.

All of this amounts to a massive push for nuclear energy.

But that’s not even the best part of the story.

Kishida also said he has directed a government panel to look into how “next-generation nuclear reactors” could be used to help the nation achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

Put another way, Japan will probably be building more nuclear reactors. And likely soon.

To say that this is a major pivot back into nuclear energy would be putting it mildly.

In fact, not so long ago, the Japanese government insisted it would not consider building new nuclear power plants or replacing aged reactors.

But as I wrote in my reply to a reader’s question about uranium in a recent mailbag edition, Kishida’s plans have huge public support.

This news is extremely bullish for uranium – the fuel that powers nuclear plants.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

So why the change in sentiment towards nuclear energy in Japan?

There are two main factors – energy security and cost.

[Alert: 1-Stock With Potential 10x Gains (Yes, Even In This Market)]

Japan is the world’s third-largest economy. But it has no significant energy source of its own. It is completely dependent on energy imports.

Since Fukushima, Japan has relied on coal, natural gas, and fuel oil to generate its electricity.

In 2020, fossil fuels accounted for 85% of Japan’s total primary energy supply.

Up until earlier this year, natural gas and coal prices were relatively low. So there was no immediate need for Japan to restart its nuclear reactors.

But Russia’s war in Ukraine put a swift end to this safety cushion.

As you can see from the chart below, coal, natural gas, and oil prices surged after the conflict began.

Natural gas prices have risen by 127% since the beginning of the war. Coal is up 96%. And although it has pulled back recently, at one point, oil was up 53%.

That’s a big problem for a country that depends so much on fossil fuels to keep its economy running.

Fuel accounts for up to 80% of the cost of operating a fossil steam plant or gas turbine. The cost of uranium is only about 20% of a typical nuclear plant’s operating cost.

So Japan is shifting its focus back to nuclear energy in a bid to bring those costs down.

Also, the evidence over six decades shows that nuclear is a safe means of generating power.

Yes, there have been some isolated incidents. But the Fukushima meltdown was because of a major earthquake, followed by a 15-meter tsunami.

And there haven’t been any major nuclear power plant accidents since then.

In fact, according to data from the European Union (EU), World Bank, and Energy Information Administration (EIA), nuclear reactor sites are four times safer than wind farms and ten times safer than solar farms.

[Nomi Prins: 10x Gains on a Small Firm Disrupting a Critical American Industry]

Learning From the Past

Another factor that will no doubt reinforce Japan’s commitment to nuclear energy is the current global instability.

It still relies on Russia for about 9% of its natural gas. Losing that supply would spell trouble for Japan.

Keep in mind that Russia recently cut gas supplies to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline indefinitely.

And Japanese-Russian relations are anything but great right now.

Japan has repeatedly criticized Russian aggression in Ukraine. And it has slapped Russia with unprecedented economic sanctions.

In response, Russia banned 384 members of Japan’s parliament from entering its territory.

The upshot is that Japan is in a very vulnerable position.

To the Japanese, this evokes memories of the early 1970s.

A large regional war in the Middle East disrupted energy supplies. The oil crisis that followed caused Japan’s economy to contract by 7%, bankrupting many businesses and families.

So securing its own energy supplies has climbed Japan’s priority list in recent months.

Nuclear power is the only feasible way for Japan to meet its goals of climate and energy security.

The Japanese understand this.

Today, Japan generates just 6% of its electricity from nuclear power.

But up until the Fukushima incident, the country expected to generate up to 40% of its electricity from its nuclear reactors.

I think it’s a good bet that Japan will attempt to hit that target again in the years to come. This would imply more than 500% growth from today’s level.

And that would have a huge impact on uranium demand… and its price.

But this shift to nuclear energy isn’t just happening in Japan.

Right now, there are 55 nuclear power plants under construction globally. These are largely concentrated in China, India, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Globally, another 90 are planned and more than 300 proposed.

The extra demand from these new plants alone all but guarantees that the price of uranium will go up.

What This Means for Your Money

So, how can you benefit from the nuclear revival in Japan and elsewhere?

You can consider investing in the Global X Uranium ETF (URA).

The fund holds a basket of producers, physical holdings, and property developers. So, it gives you broad exposure to the uranium sector.

As an exchange-traded fund (ETF), it also carries less company-specific risk than investing in individual companies.

Until tomorrow,

Nomi Prins
Editor, Inside Wall Street with Nomi Prins

[Nomi Prins: 10x Gains on a Small Firm Disrupting a Critical American Industry]

New Battery Tech Could Spell End for Lithium Industry

September 13, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

A Double-Edged Sword

It's tough to mine, it's highly taxing on the environment to extract and refine, and, perhaps worst of all, most of today's richest lithium-bearing properties are owned and operated by one of the Western world's most hostile political powers — the Communist Party of China (CCP).

This isn't surprising or shocking to anybody who follows the industry, as the CCP has been planning for the lithium revolution for decades, quietly buying up lithium exploration around the globe, from Asia to South America.

And their grip on the industry has tightened. Today 148 of the world's 200 biggest lithium-ion battery producing factories are now located in mainland China, compared with just 11 in the U.S., and 20 in Europe.

Even EV giant Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) gets most of its batteries from Asia, despite all the hype regarding “gigafactories” and market dominance you may be hearing from Elon Musk on Twitter.

[Louis Navellier: The #1 Electric Vehicle (EV) Battery Stock of 2022]

In the years to come, Chinese influence over the lithium industry will only increase as the country charges toward its ultimate goal: a global lithium battery monopoly.

If it achieves this end, no war with the West will be necessary. China will have all the cards and all the power over tomorrow's economy.

Everything from your car to your smartphone will be powered by products with “Made in China” stamped across the housing.

Needless to say, the industry is scrambling to find a solution, and herein lies the secret that I alluded to earlier.

Is Lithium Already Dead?

Right now, there's a new battery technology that's on the rise, and it has the potential to destroy the lithium industry altogether.

The material at the heart of these next-generation batteries doesn't need to be mined or refined. It's produced artificially in high-tech laboratories, and the end result is a battery that's vastly superior on a technical level, not to mention completely independent of Chinese influence.

That material is called graphene. It's a high-tech nanostructure that's just one molecule thick and can be made using nothing more than natural gas and electricity.

Two hundred times stronger than steel, light as a feather, and highly conductive of both heat and electricity, this fabric has properties that make it almost extraterrestrial in nature.

When applied to a battery's cathode, the results are truly disruptive.

Graphene-ion batteries have a much higher energy density than lithium-ion, a longer service life, and a much, much faster charge time.

To translate these factors into meaningful numbers, a Tesla with a graphene battery pack would have a range of up to 1,000 miles, last for over 1 million miles, and charge from 0% to 100% in as little as one minute.

You read that correctly. A full charge in less time than it would take to fill up a gas tank.

That's a game-changer and just one of the reasons why the CAGR for graphene batteries has been pegged at right around 28% through the end of the decade.

[MAJOR BUY ALERT: EVs/Wall Street/Gains]

To Gain the Most, Buy Early

That's almost three times the growth rate of lithium.

Now, to be clear, the graphene battery industry is just starting out.

In fact, there's only one company that's really producing any at all at the moment, and it's not Chinese. It's Australian.

The reason this company is leading the charge has to do with graphene production. You see, up until this company made a crucial breakthrough, the cost of production was too high to even consider making graphene for consumer needs — we're talking something on the order of $100,000/kg.

With the new production method, that cost has fallen by orders of magnitude, which has opened up an entire host of potential applications for this space-age material.

This company is currently quite small, with a market capitalization of less than $250 million — a mere drop in the bucket compared with the mammoth industry it's set to replace.

Its stock is also already public, which makes this a rare opportunity for investors in the know.

The Best-Kept Secret in Tech?

As you may have surmised by now, there aren't too many such investors out there today. Otherwise the stock would already be trading at a price several times higher than it is.

Today, only a handful of individuals outside the scientific community know anything about the company or the stock, which means you're on the cusp of a massive opportunity.

Alex Koyfman

[Nomi Prins: 10x Gains on a Small Firm Disrupting a Critical American Industry]

Turning Clean Energy Solutions Into Profit

September 5, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

America’s Failing Energy Infrastructure

When President Joe Biden signed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act late last year, Congress earmarked about $65 billion to improve the nation’s power grid.

That number is woefully short of the estimated $7 trillion needed to modernize our current power infrastructure.

As a result, Congress has spent the months since trying to stretch those dollars by promoting “distributed energy resources,”… a fancy way of telling Americans that they’ll have to become their own mini-power grids.

California is a party to this strategy. It now offers several programs that reward homeowners for installing distributed energy resources like solar panels and energy storage systems (ESS).

Some utilities will offer a $1,000 rebate for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of ESS installed. And California will pause property tax rate hikes until 2024 on properties that install solar panels.

Along with other federal and regional incentives, California hopes these efforts are enough to decentralize the grid for the coming EV wave… And this is where we’ll find opportunity.

Turning Clean Energy Solutions Into Profit

California is home to over 39 million people. More than Canada or Australia. And it would be the world’s fifth-largest GDP if it were a nation… so it uses a lot of electricity.

Add in the seven other states that intend to follow California’s lead… and that’s 40% of the nation’s car sales going electric over the next thirteen years.

So an estimated 57.8 million homes are likely to adopt ESS to keep them charged.

You can get immediate exposure to this trend by investing in the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (ICLN)…

The ICLN index fund holds large, established companies. So the growth potential isn’t the same as a private start-up… But it’s up 6% year-to-date compared to the Nasdaq’s 23% decline.

It will also give you broad market exposure to companies like Enphase Energy and SolarEdge Technologies.

Enphase is one of the largest producers of home ESS. And SolarEdge builds power management systems for home solar panels.

So as waves of consumers adopt EVs and home ESS over the next two years, I believe ICLN could double your money in that same period.

And if current trends are any indication, it’s only a matter of time before even more Americans make the switch… so preparing for that today could potentially set you up for a windfall of profits in the years ahead.

Invest with conviction,

Anthony Planas
Analyst, Palm Beach Daily

[Nomi Prins: 10x Gains on a Small Firm Disrupting a Critical American Industry]

Critical Electric Vehicle Battery Bottleneck in China?

August 29, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

As we’ve reviewed before, if the majority of our electricity is produced by fossil fuels – as it is, almost everywhere on the planet – carbon emissions won’t be reduced by shifting to EVs. Some have even argued that emissions will increase, as typically 7–15% of electricity is lost in transmission from the power plant to the end user. That’s just the nature of the inefficiency of the distribution of power over our current infrastructure.

But let’s set those inconvenient truths aside for a moment. Is it even possible for the automotive industry to produce enough new EVs to hit the targets set aside for 2030? I recognize that it’s a moot point, given the nature of how electricity is produced, but the exercise will reveal something quite interesting.

It is possible to produce enough of the new vehicles, the cars themselves, but – and this is a big but – it won’t be possible to manufacture enough EV batteries to “fuel” them. The fundamental problem is with the EV battery supply chains.

And at the very beginning of the supply chains are the metals that need to be mined and extracted from the earth, and ultimately processed for use. It’s a destructive and very dirty process that leaves massive “scars” on Earth’s surface – and produces immense amounts of carbon emissions. And yet without these metals, we don’t have EV batteries…

[MAJOR BUY ALERT: EVs/Wall Street/Gains]

The problem is that with these massive targets for EV production set by countries around the world, the politicians and policymakers (especially those in the U.S.) didn’t think much about the details of whether or not the targets were possible. Or for that matter, whether or not the process would be “clean” and actually result in lower emissions.

In order to meet these grand goals of EVs everywhere by 2030, the world will need to mine and extract critical metals from the ground. The need is no small task either, as seen in the above chart… 50 new lithium mines will have to be built, 60 new nickel mines will have to be built, and 17 new cobalt mines need to be built.

The automotive industry is already struggling with shortages of these metals, as well as with securing future supply, yet the policy targets established within require more than a 5X increase in kilotons (kt) in lithium production, 2X in nickel, and almost double in cobalt.

Making matters worse, on average it takes 7–10 years to get permitted to build a mine in the U.S. And that’s right… in just eight years it will be 2030. How’s that going to work?

Some other countries, particularly in developing markets, are able to permit in shorter periods of time, but it is still a multi-year process. Further, what about the practicalities of the “where” and “how” to extract and process these metals?

[Enrique Abeyta Prediction: My #1 EV Stock for 2022]

Cobalt is almost entirely mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, not exactly an anti-fragile location for a key material in a supply chain. More than half of nickel production comes from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Russia.

The majority of the rare earth metals are all mined in China… critical metals used not just in EVs, but most forms of advanced electronics like our smartphones.

And the majority of the world’s lithium is mined in Australia and Chile. While these locations are politically stable, it’s the required step up in production – more than 5X – that’s the problem.

But even if we assume that somehow the permitting of new mines magically happens within the next two years, and the metals can be found at the scale that is necessary to meet demand, there is one more sticky problem…

The majority of the processing of these metals takes place in China, not exactly the location that I’d choose for a secure supply chain right now. The reality is that extraction and processing of these metals is a very dirty and fossil fuel-intensive business, which is why the western world was happy to offshore these tasks to developing markets.

And now, the implications of those decisions are being felt across supply chains. These metals are not only important in the context of battery production, but in many cases, are considered to be matters of national security.

The reality is that China has a chokehold over these metals and can control how much of each are exported to the world. And of course, its own country’s needs will be prioritized over others.

It’s great to have aspirational goals and objectives with regard to clean energy. My sincere wish is that we transition the entire power production infrastructure to clean energy produced from technology like nuclear fusion.

Sadly, these tax and spend stimulus packages have no chance of achieving their targets. “They” neglected the most basic and fundamental inputs required to meet stated targets.

Even worse, all of this spending will enrich a small number of vested interests, very wealthy individuals, and politicians… at the expense of normal taxpayers.

[Nomi Prins: 10x Gains on a Small Firm Disrupting a Critical American Industry]

MAJOR BUY ALERT: EVs/Wall Street/Gains

August 19, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

I recently traveled to New York…

And after what I saw there, I'm ready to put my reputation on the line.

I spent 25 years on Wall Street, where I managed several billion-dollar hedge funds.

The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Barron's, Institutional Investor, Forbes, Business Insider, and Bloomberg all have my number on speed-dial.

But once they get a load of what I've discovered, my phone will be ringing off the hook!

It involves $520.2 billion in smart money… the biggest names in Wall Street… and a surprising new player in the $1.3 trillion EV boom.

See for yourself!

If you buy just one stock in 2022, I believe it should be this one.

Regards,

Enrique Abeyta
Editor, Empire Financial Research

New Vehicle Shocks EV Market

August 19, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

The Wall Street Journal calls it “an American manufacturing triumph.”

The vehicle that could finally take EVs mainstream.

It's shockingly cheap – as much as 50% cheaper than the competition.

It has 775 pound-feet of torque.

And it can even power a home for up to 10 days.

Until now, this was just a pipe dream. But now it's a reality. Right now.

But the best is yet to come…

The stage is now set for the automaker behind this vehicle to make a MAJOR move.

One that could send Wall Street into a buying frenzy.

Click here for the full story…

Regards,

Sam Latter
Editor in Chief, Empire Financial Research

admin

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