Brightstar Resources (BTR:AU) has announced Canaccord Global Mining Conference Presentation
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BEIJING — One Chinese baby products company announced Tuesday it is officially entering the United States, the world’s largest consumer market — regardless of the trade war.
Shanghai-based Bc Babycare expects its supply chain diversification and the U.S. market potential to more than offset the impact of ongoing U.S.-China trade tensions, according to Chi Yang, the company’s vice president of Europe and the Americas.
“Even [if] the political things are not steady … I’m very confident about our product for the moment,” he told CNBC, adding he anticipates “very fast” growth in the U.S. in coming years. That includes his bold predictions that Bc Babycare’s flagship baby carrier can become the best-seller on Amazon.com in half a year, and that U.S. sales can grow by 10-fold in a year.
The $159.99 carrier, eligible for a $40 discount, already has 4.7 stars on Amazon.com across more than 30 reviews. The device claims to reduce pressure on the parent’s body by up to 33%. A far cheaper version of the baby carrier is a top seller among travel products for pregnancy and childbirth on JD.com in China.
Bc Babycare already has the carrier stocked in its U.S. warehouses, and has a network of factories and raw materials suppliers in the Americas, Europe and Asia, Yang said. “The global supply chain is one of the things we keep on building in the past couple years.”
The Trump administration has sought to reduce U.S. reliance on China-made goods and to encourage the return of manufacturing jobs to the U.S. In a rapid escalation of tensions last month, the U.S. and China had added tariffs of more than 100% on each other’s goods. Last week, the two sides agreed to a 90-day pause for most of the new duties in order to discuss a trade deal.
Baby gear is particularly sensitive to tariffs since the majority of those sold in the U.S. are made in China, said U.S.-based Newell Brands, which owns stroller company Graco, on an April 30 earnings call. That’s according to a FactSet transcript.
The company said it raised baby gear prices by about 20% in the last few weeks, but had not incorporated the additional 125% tariffs announced in mid-April. Newell said on the call it had about three to four months of inventory in the U.S., and had paused additional orders from China.
The company did not respond to a request for comment about whether it had resumed orders from China and whether it planned more price increases.
Bc Babycare declined to share how much it planned to invest in the U.S. But Yang said the company plans to open an office in the country and hire about five to 10 locals.
The company initially plans to sell online, spend on marketing and eventually work with major retailers for offline store sales. Its partners for raw materials and research include three U.S. companies: Lyra, Dow and Eastman.
The Chinese company, which entered the baby products segment in 2014, in 2021 claimed a 700 million yuan ($97.09 million) funding round from investors including Sequoia Capital China.
Yang said the company scrutinizes the comments section on Chinese and U.S. e-commerce websites to improve its products. As a result, the U.S. version of the baby carrier is softer and larger than the Chinese version, he said.
Bc Babycare’s U.S. market ambitions reflect how large U.S. and European multinationals not only face growing competition in China, but also in their home markets.
“After experiencing substantial growth due to the premiumization of consumption in the Chinese market, multinational brands are now entering a challenging second phase where they compete fiercely for market share,” Dave Xie, retail and consumer goods partner in Shanghai at consultancy Oliver Wyman, said in a statement last week.
Oliver Wyman said in a report last month that the Chinese market has become the incubator for premium product innovations that are being exported. The authors noted, for example, that Tineco floor scrubbers have become Amazon best-sellers.
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Levi Strauss has agreed to sell Dockers to brand management firm Authentic Brands Group for $311 million, the companies announced Tuesday.
Under the terms of the deal, Authentic will own Dockers’ intellectual property while Centric Brands will take on operations, handling manufacturing, sourcing and distribution. Under the brand management business model, Levi’s stands to make up to $391 million in future years based on how well Dockers performs under the Authentic umbrella, which also includes Forever 21′s intellectual property and brands like Reebok and Nautica.
“The Dockers transaction further aligns our portfolio with our strategic priorities, focusing on our direct-to-consumer first approach, growing our international presence and investing in opportunities across women’s and denim lifestyle,” Levi’s CEO Michelle Gass said in a statement. “After a robust process, we are confident that we maximized the value of the business and that Authentic is the right organization to usher in the next chapter of growth for the Dockers brand.”
In October, Levi’s announced it was considering selling Dockers as it looked to focus on growing its namesake line and its athleisure brand, Beyond Yoga. Levi’s created Dockers in 1986 as a hedge against denim and to offer consumers an alternative: khakis. The brand was hugely popular throughout the 1990s and 2000s, but khakis have since fallen out of fashion in the U.S., especially recently as denim makes another comeback.
To grow Dockers, Levi’s needed to offer more tops and bottoms, but the company is doing the same thing at its namesake banner and there was too much overlap between the two brands. Dockers’ performance was also dragging down Levi’s results and Gass, who took the helm of the company a little over a year ago, has been working to cut off extraneous businesses to fuel growth and focus on direct selling.
In the three months ended March 2, Levi’s reported $67 million in revenue related to Dockers. The figure isn’t comparable to the year-ago period because Levi’s only recently started breaking out the performance of each individual brand.
While khakis have fallen out of favor in the U.S., Dockers is still popular abroad, which is what makes a brand management company a strategic fit, according to people who have seen Dockers’ financials and spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details were private. Firms like Authentic are skilled at rapidly licensing and deploying brands internationally.
In a press release, Authentic said it plans to “unlock new opportunities” for Dockers through its global network of 1,700 licensing partners. It said it is in active discussions with regional operators in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia to expand Dockers’ existing businesses across those markets.
“Few brands own a category the way Dockers does, yet still have so much room to grow,” said Matt Maddox, president at Authentic. “Its legacy in casualwear gives it a strong foundation, but the real opportunity lies in reimagining the brand for a new generation. Through our global platform and deep licensing network, we’re committed to stewarding the brand into its next era of growth and relevance.”
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We’ve all heard the classic market maxim, “Sell in May and go away.” For many investors, that’s the introduction to market seasonality that suggests a six month period where it’s just best to avoid stocks altogether.
Through my own experience, complemented with interviews with seasonality experts like ” We’ll dig deeper into the history of “Sell in May,” analyze summer trends in recent years, and focus on signs to follow in the weeks and months ahead! Sign up HERE for this free event!
It turns out that the reason why “sell in May” has often worked out is less about May being super weak, but more about how major lows have usually come in the fall months. Since the COVID low in early 2020, we’ve experienced major lows in September or October every year except for 2024.
Spring and Early Summer Have Been Crazy Strong
When we focus on the last five years, we can see that the May-June-July period has been consistently strong. In fact, May and July have seen bullish trends every year since 2019. So while investors often talk about the “summer doldrums” and weakness into the hot summer months, the recent evidence would suggest otherwise.
The weakest months since the COVID low have actually been January, February, September, and October. So again, it’s been less about weakness in the spring, and much more about weaker price action into the traditional low in September or October. Also note the strength in November, where the market is almost always rallying off a major low and setting up for a positive finish to the calendar year!
Will 2025 Follow the Normal Seasonal Pattern?
As I mentioned earlier, I like to think of seasonal patterns as tendencies. There is no guarantee that July will be strong, and there is no way I can tell you for sure that the market will make yet another major low in September. Seasonality tells you the general bias to the markets, but mindful investors know the most important evidence is price itself.
Given the extreme rally off the early April low, we’ve seen a rapid rotation from bearish sentiment to more bullish outlooks as investors have started to believe in the new uptrend phase. This week’s price gap higher for the S&P 500 could provide a perfect support range to monitor in the coming weeks and months.
If the S&P 500 is able to hold 5750, and remain above the support range set from the gap earlier this month, then perhaps the equity markets will follow the same pattern as recent years and remain strong into August.
If, however, the S&P 500 is unable to hold this key support range, and we also confirm that breakdown with weaker momentum readings and deteriorating breadth conditions, then the S&P 500 may be charting a new course through what has become a strong period in the calendar year.
RR#6,
Dave
PS- Ready to upgrade your investment process? Check out my free behavioral investing course!
David Keller, CMT
President and Chief Strategist
Sierra Alpha Research LLC
https://www.youtube.com/c/MarketMisbehavior
Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.
The author does not have a position in mentioned securities at the time of publication. Any opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person or entity.
Looking for breakout stocks and top market leaders? Follow along Mary Ellen shares stock breakouts, analyst upgrades, and sector leadership trends to help you trade strong stocks in today’s market.
In this week’s episode, Mary Ellen reveals the stocks leading the market higher and explains what’s fueling their strength. She highlights base breakouts, analyst upgrades, and leadership stocks gaining momentum. In addition, she screens for emerging breakout candidates you should have on your radar.
This video originally premiered May 16, 2025. You can watch it on our dedicated page for Mary Ellen’s videos.
New videos from Mary Ellen premiere weekly on Fridays. You can view all previously recorded episodes at this link.
If you’re looking for stocks to invest in, be sure to check out the MEM Edge Report! This report gives you detailed information on the top sectors, industries and stocks so you can make informed investment decisions.
Earnings season continues with names like Home Depot, Palo Alto Networks, and BJ’s Wholesale flashing signals that investors shouldn’t ignore. Whether you’re following home improvement trends, cybersecurity growth, or retail resilience, these stocks offer insight into where the stock market could be headed next.
Let’s break down the charts, decode the earnings, and explore the setups that could shape your next move.
DIY Boom Fizzling: What Home Depot’s Earnings Might Tell Us
Home Depot, Inc. (HD) reports earnings on Tuesday, and its results will give a peek at how the DIY home retail investor is changing their spending habits. HD’s stock price has struggled and is down about 2.5% year-to-date, but well off its lows. Like most stocks reporting earnings this quarter, investors will listen for any revisions to HD’s guidance, especially considering ongoing economic challenges such as high interest rates and their impact on consumer spending.
Let’s look at the daily chart of HD.
FIGURE 1. DAILY CHART OF HOME DEPOT, INC. STOCK PRICE. The $377 area and 200-day moving average act as the middle road for a potential setup.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.
The chart of HD stock displayed a head-and-shoulders top last quarter, which we warned about. Sadly, that pattern broke to the downside and hit its target some $50 lower. Since bottoming, shares have retreated to where they were before their last report.
The set-up is a coin flip, with the $377 area and 200-day simple moving average (SMA) acting as the middle road. Stock prices are known to gap and trend for roughly two weeks in the gap’s direction before reversing direction.
If HD’s stock price dips, there are clear support and potential entry points. Look for the rising 50-day SMA to hold at around the $360 level. A dip and hold here would be good for the longer-term turnaround story and the bullish case. If there’s a break, wait for a deeper drop to enter HD. A gap above the 200-day SMA should lead to near-term smooth sailing and enable a trader to use the average as a great stop loss guide.
Palo Alto Networks (PANW): Can It Keep Climbing?
It’s one of the biggest names in cybersecurity, and it’s on the verge of getting back to its all-time highs.
Fundamentally, Palo Alto Networks’ annual recurring revenue (ARR) continues to be the significant growth driver. In Q1, ARR grew 40% year-over-year to $4.5 billion. For Q2 2025, the company projected ARR between $4.70 billion and $4.75 billion. Investors will be keen to see if the company meets or exceeds this guidance.
Technically, we wanted to look at this chart on a longer time frame. The five-year weekly chart of PANW below shows the trend is stalling under a double top at the $205 level. There are some good signs that it may be able to get back on track and push to new highs.
FIGURE 2. WEEKLY CHART OF PALO ALTO NETWORKS STOCK PRICE. Monitor the rising 50-week SMA. Will it hold that level after earnings? The MACD is displaying a bullish crossover, which signals a favorable risk/reward setup.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.
The key level to watch for the bulls is the rising 50-week (blue line) SMA. Shares had consistently trended above this level since initially surpassing it in early 2023. Price action briefly broke below that average, but recaptured it two weeks ago. Now it must hold that level, so watch $178.50 for support on any weakness.
The technical indicator that caught my eye was the moving average convergence/divergence (MACD), which just experienced a bullish crossover. This has a history of leading to great risk/reward setups in a stock. The chart highlights the current crossover and the last two notable ones in green to demonstrate the indicator’s past performance.
Any upside movement should take PANW’s stock price back to the $205 level and a re-test of all-time highs.
BJ’s Wholesale (BJ): Quietly Outperforming
BJ’s has quietly enjoyed a strong 2025, despite tariff talk and negative consumer sentiment. Shares of BJ are up 29% year-to-date and over 44% over the last 52 weeks. While its $14 billion market cap pales in comparison to the $450 billion size of its biggest wholesale competitor in Costco (COST), BJ continues to exceed expectations and thrive.
BJ’s stock price has rallied after four of the last five earnings reports, with an average gain of 8%, including a 12% rally last quarter. Coming into the results, the stock price is starting to rally back towards all-time highs. Maybe this will be the catalyst to break out even higher.
Technically, there is much overhead resistance at the $120 level (see daily chart of BJ below). A break above there should lead to another $10–$15 on the upside.
FIGURE 3. DAILY CHART OF BJ STOCK. Note the overhead resistance at around the $120 level. On the downside, there’s support at $108 and the rising 100-day SMA.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes only.
Weakness has given investors opportunities as well. There is clear support at the $108 level and the rising 100-day SMA (in green). The long-term trend has been strong and, barring a major change in the fiscal direction of BJ’s, the trends should continue to be your friend and give solid risk/reward entry points.
Final Thoughts
Charts aren’t just squiggly lines. They’re tools to help you make smarter decisions with your hard-earned money.
Whether you’re eyeing a potential rebound in Home Depot, the strength of cybersecurity, or a quiet winner like BJ’s, remember: technical patterns can give you an edge, but so can patience and perspective.
Learn how to analyze stock price gaps with Dave! In this video, Dave discusses the different types of price gaps, why all price gaps are not the same, and how you can use the StockCharts platform to identify key levels and signals to follow on charts where price gaps occur. Charts discussed include the S&P 500, First Solar (FSLR), Microsoft (MSFT), and more!
This video originally premiered on May 19, 2025. Watch on StockCharts’ dedicated David Keller page!
Previously recorded videos from Dave are available at this link.
Brightstar Resources (BTR:AU) has announced High-grade results incl 16m @ 8g/t Au in Menzies drilling
Download the PDF here.
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Silver has lagged behind gold’s record run, causing the gold-silver ratio to stretch near historic extremes.
With the gold price buoyed by central bank buying and silver increasingly tied to industrial demand, the disconnect between the two traditional safe-haven metals has widened.
But could the silver price finally be poised for a breakout?
During a recent silver-focused webinar, Sprott (TSX:SII,NYSE:SII) founder Eric Sprott, former Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) CEO Phil Baker and technical analyst Michael Oliver joined host Simon Catt of Arlington Group to unpack what’s driving silver’s sluggish performance, and whether a reversal could be on the horizon.
The panelists explored silver’s shifting applications, the impact of macro forces like Bitcoin speculation and why some investors see today’s dynamics as a potential launchpad for silver’s next big move.
Understanding silver supply and demand
The silver price surged in 2024, rising from around US$22 per ounce at the start of the year to nearly US$35 by the end of October. Since then, silver has largely stayed in the US$30 to US$32 range, briefly breaking US$34 mark in March.
The metal has seen some support in 2025 due to instability in global financial markets caused by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the threat of reciprocal import fees against key trading partners.
These foreign policy shifts by the world’s largest economy have created uncertainty for investors who have been increasingly looking to traditional safe havens like silver and gold to de-risk their portfolios.
However, today’s tariff turmoil overshadows a fundamental shift in the silver market over the past several years, which has seen industrial demand growth start to outpace traditional investment demand.
The most notable demand increase has been due to the energy transition and silver’s use in solar panels.
While firms like Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) have predicted that industrial demand will wane over the next few years, Catt’s panelists presented different points of view. Sprott said there will be further demand from the electric vehicle (EV) market as producers look to solid-state batteries, which are not only safer, but also quicker to charge.
“I think (solid-state batteries) will bring back EVs to being viewed as economic,’ he said. ‘Plus the whole processing of solar panels and generating electricity more and more inexpensively over time, it’s just going to make the demand for silver continue to rise here when we already have a shortfall,” he told listeners.
Baker pointed out that solar currently makes up 29 percent of silver’s total 1.2 billion ounces of annual demand, and noted that if that were to disappear, it would have a massive impact on the silver market. However, he also said that even if there were a significant policy shift in the US, there would still be considerable demand for solar worldwide.
“Even in the US, the policy really is ‘all of the above’ — all forms of energy. So I’m not concerned about solar cells diminishing. Could they go flat? Yeah, that’s fine. Flat at 300 million ounces? That’s great demand for silver,” he added.
While most solar demand comes from China, the panelists also discussed India’s growing role in the sector. The country has recently been working to increase domestic production of solar panels.
“(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi made a policy decision a year ago to grow the solar industry in India. So in India, only about 10 percent of their demand for silver is used for industrial purposes. In China, it’s 90 percent, and so what you’re going to have in India is you’re going to see their solar panel growth skyrocket,” Baker said.
Of course, demand isn’t the only factor influencing the silver industry.
Supply constraints have helped push the market into a structural deficit over the past several years.
Silver is primarily a by-product metal in the production of copper, nickel, zinc and gold, which makes it highly dependent on dynamics in those markets. As Baker pointed out, silver isn’t a significant source of revenue.
“So even if the price of silver rises significantly, they’re not going to change their operations because it’s not going to matter for a big copper producer,” he explained. Unless there are dramatic production swings for those commodities, supply and demand are unlikely to come into balance in the near term.
Silver price poised to break out?
Over the past year, silver has tested US$35 twice. Using technical analysis, Oliver compared this to how the silver price tested resistance at the US$26 level three times before breaking through.
What he’s seeing in momentum indicators now is similar to what happened at that time. In the lead up, momentum was flat, but once silver hit US$26, momentum saw an immediate 10 percent gain.
‘It came back up a third time to US$26, watch out. It blew your head off,’ he said. ‘Okay, you go back to US$35 again, and the price says, ‘You better watch out, I’m at a triple top, and if I go to US$36, it’s a triple-top breakout.”
“The only issue is now which week punches up there to that 10 percent over level. I think — who knows, it might even be tomorrow, but I think soon we’ll get up there,” Oliver said.
Silver price, May 15, 2022, to May 16, 2025.
Oliver went on to examine the gold-silver ratio, which he said could be suggesting a breakout is overdue. Traditionally, the ratio falls between 40 and 80 to 1, but it’s now closer to 100 to 1.
“I bet both of these metrics will pretty much coincide in terms of upturn, meaning not only a net price upturn in silver, but a relative performance upturn in silver versus gold, and I think that’ll shock people more than anything … especially if all of a sudden silver wakes up in a shocking, rapid way,’ Oliver noted.
‘That’s going to surprise most investors. I think it’s about to happen, the technicals are ripe.’
Silver market still facing manipulation
Addressing manipulation, Sprott suggested silver has been manipulated for the last half century.
‘I look at silver as a market that’s been manipulated for 50 years. We have about eight to 12 major international banks who are short over 500 million ounces of silver on the COMEX, have always been short that product,’ he said.
‘They always make stabs at knocking it down, trying to cover, but the shorts go back up.’
However, Sprott said as the price has gone from the US$20 range to closer to US$35 it has become more difficult for these banks to maintain their positions. “The same thing is true in gold, but in gold we all know that in the last year, when it broke through US$2,000 (per ounce) for the fourth time, it was over for the commercial banks,” he noted.
He went on to discuss how trading on the COMEX seems contrary to what is going on in other markets, saying that when international markets are open, gold and silver prices trade higher, but when the COMEX opens, they tend to fall.
“If you just traded COMEX and you bought silver at the starting value, it’d be worth about 2 or 3 percent of what it started at, whereas if you bought it in non-COMEX hours, it would be worth 600 percent more,’ Sprott said.
In his view, the suppression is ‘obvious.’ However, he predicts that the gold-silver ratio will correct in the near future, and the silver price will start to outperform gold.
What’s the outlook for the silver price?
For his part, Sprott sees the silver price going much higher.
“I’m sure we’re going to be through US$50. It used to trade at 15 to 1 to the price of gold. At today’s price of gold, that would be over US$200. I have no reason to think we’re not going there,” he said.
Oliver had a similar price prediction.
“I think the first surge could get you well above US$50. I think you’d get up in the US$60s and US$70s before you even pause, and I think it could occur rapidly,” he said. Oliver also explained that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin aren’t an alternative and appear more like a speculative bubble. Given the size of the US debt, Treasuries aren’t as attractive to investors, which is causing further compression in monetary metals markets.
Although Baker didn’t provide a price prediction, he did express support for a market driven by supply and demand fundamentals, saying that “this is a very, very unique time.”
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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Metro Mining (MMI:AU) has announced Reserve and Resource Update
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