Novo Nordisk, Desert Gold Ventures, Palantir – AI madness, Trump fuels the gold rush

Palantir – Golden Times

Controversial, yet successful. Since hitting rock bottom in January 2023, the data specialist's stock has risen by over 1,200% to a level of USD 78.98. However, barring a few short pauses for breath, an end to the rally does not yet appear to be in sight. The Company, led by Alex Karp, appears to be too important in the current AI environment.

More than a few analysts see Palantir as a potential market leader in the expanding field of artificial intelligence. The Company's operating performance supports this assessment. In the past quarter, Palantir was able to increase its revenue by an impressive 29.98% to USD 725.52 million while at the same time doubling its earnings per share to USD 0.06. Strong demand for the Company's AI platform, particularly from the commercial and government sectors, points to further growth potential.

The Wedbush experts raised their target price for Palantir shares from USD 75 to USD 90 and left the rating at "Outperform". Despite the current high valuation, the experts see the potential for the Company to grow into an Oracle or Salesforce-level enterprise over the next few years. They base this assessment primarily on Palantir's advanced AI strategy. The Company is experiencing "unprecedented demand" for its AI platform from both the commercial and federal sectors.

In particular, the "expanded portfolio of advanced AI capabilities" continues to receive strong approval from various government agencies. "We believe the Trump administration is providing additional impetus," the Wedbush team said, referring to the recently unveiled Stargate initiative. The recent announcement by US President Donald Trump on Stargate represents an investment in AI infrastructure of over USD 500 billion.

Desert Gold Ventures – Profiting from the gold rush

Driven by geopolitical uncertainties on the one hand and central bank activities on the other, the price of gold, at USD 2,770 per ounce, is on the verge of reaching a new all-time high and, according to market experts, could break through the psychologically important USD 3,000 per ounce mark before the end of this year. In comparison, the stocks of gold producers and exploration companies remained far from their historic highs. When looking at the historical correlation between companies and the underlying asset, it is likely to be evened out in one of the next upward waves. This means that there is still an opportunity to benefit disproportionately from the rising gold price.

One promising company is Desert Gold Ventures, which has a market capitalization of USD 16.80 million. The Canadian company controls the 440 km² SMSZ project in Mali, which is located in a 38 km long section of the productive Senegal-Mali Shear Zone in West Africa. To date, 1.1 million ounces of gold have been identified near surface, consisting of 310,300 ounces of gold as a proven and indicated mineral resource and 769,200 ounces of suspected mineral resources.

A sudden resource expansion could now occur as a result of the acquisition of trench and exploration results obtained by the Australian company Golden Rim Resources between 2010 and 2012 at and near the Mogoyafara South and Linnguekoto West gold deposits. Combined estimated gold resources for the two zones comprise inferred mineral resources of 479,000 ounces gold at a grade of 1.09 g/t gold. In total, Desert Gold, which is working on its Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) study expected in the near term, has secured assay results from 1,419 soil samples, 1,042 prospecting samples, and 2,393 grab samples.

Jared Scharf, CEO of Desert Gold Ventures, believes that the recently discovered exploration data gives both deposit areas additional leeway, as they show opportunities for expanding the mineral resources through drilling. Particularly intriguing is an unmodeled area with significantly higher gold grades at the Mogoyafara South deposit, as well as evidence of laterite-covered gold zones south of the Linnguekoto deposit.

Novo Nordisk – A ray of hope in a downward trend

It was one of the success stories of the past year on the stock market, the business against obesity and diabetes. At the forefront was the Danish company Novo Nordisk, which has since become the most valuable company in Europe. Between March 2020, the low point of the Coronavirus Crisis, and June 2024, the share price exploded by around 530% to an all-time high of EUR 138.48.

Since then, however, the clocks have been ticking backwards again, with the price correcting by almost 40% to EUR 83.38 today, although the current listing is unlikely to represent the end of the ongoing consolidation.

At the end of December, due to sobering study results of the planned Wegovy successor CagriSema, Novo Nordisk's shares plunged by around 20% in a single day to a low of EUR 71.62 but were able to stabilize and, with the success report last Friday, established a closing price above the EUR 80 mark for the first time since then. With the publication of the successful completion of a study with Wegovy's successor drug Amycretin, the share price even shot up to a daily high of EUR 88.83 but was then sold off again during the ongoing trading session.

To make the chart picture more bullish, a break of the downward trend established in June 2024 at EUR 98.21 would be needed. A sell-off to the south would intensify if the past stock market year's low from December were breached.

The price of gold is on the verge of reaching the psychologically important USD 3,000 per ounce mark, which could benefit smaller exploration companies such as Desert Gold Ventures in this upward wave. Palantir is considered one of the most promising AI stocks globally. Novo Nordisk has stopped its downward slide, at least for now.