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Top 5 Diamond Stocks To Buy

People always say "diamonds are forever". So let’s take a look at some of the top diamond stocks to add to your portfolio.
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Diamond stocks are a hidden gem in the investment world. In fact, chances are you’ve probably heard the phrase “diamonds are forever” at some point in your life. And there’s definitely some truth to this famous saying. Diamonds and diamond jewelry are incredibly durable.

Beyond their durability, diamonds have stood the test of time when it comes to trends and value. Diamond jewelry has remained popular and stylish while other trends have come and gone. And a high-quality diamond will always be valuable.

So, maybe it’s time investors start looking to this timeless stone to strengthen their portfolios. Let’s take a look at some of the top diamond stocks to buy today.

Best Diamond Stocks to Buy

Global diamond production increased by almost 12% year-over-year (YOY) to 120 million carats in 2021. Although, overall production levels fell short compared to recent years. This can be attributed to factors like major mine closures.

However, despite somewhat disappointing production levels, the value of the diamonds produced was high. In fact, the average value of global diamond production was $116.53 per carat, a record high.

Some of the best diamond stocks to help you get a piece of this action include:

  • Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO)
  • Anglo American (OTC: NGLOY)
  • Gem Diamonds (OTC: GMDMF)
  • Lucara Diamond Corp (OTC: LUCRF)

As you probably noticed, all but one of these diamond stocks trade over-the-counter (OTC). And this comes with its unique set of risks. However, most of these companies are internationally based and trade on other major foreign exchanges.

Rio Tinto

The first up on our list of the top diamond stocks is Rio Tinto. And for anyone familiar with the mining industry, this shouldn’t be a surprise. The firm, based out of England and Australia, is the world’s second-largest metals and mining company. It owned the famous Argyle mine, one of the the world’s top diamond producers. However, mining stopped there in 2020.

Its diamond production now comes from the Diavik mine in Canada, which it has 100% ownership of. This mine produced 5.8 million carats of rough diamonds in 2021. Rio Tinto built a wind farm to generate renewable energy to support this mine. That makes Diavik one of the only hybrid wind-diesel mining operations in the world.

Rio Tinto is a founding member and one of the first mining companies to be certified by the Responsible Jewellery Council. This organization encourages responsible and ethical practices throughout the platinum, gold and diamond supply chains. Although it lost some of its output from the Argyle mine, Rio Tinto remains one of the best diamond stocks out there.

Anglo American

Anglo American is a multinational diamond company based out of London. But diamonds aren’t its only output; it’s also the world’s largest producer of platinum. However, its ownership of the De Beers Group is what makes it one of the top diamond stocks.

The De Beers Group is one of the largest diamond companies in the world, and Anglo American owns 85% of it. De Beers produces about a third of the world’s rough diamonds by value. It has mining operations in Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa. These mines have a combined estimated production of between 32 and 34 million carats in 2022.

But Anglo American isn’t just a diamond mining stock. De Beers also sells polished diamonds and jewelry through its brands, De Beers Jewellers and Forevermark. This gives investors exposure to not only the mining sector of diamond production, but also the finished consumer goods.

Gem Diamonds

The next diamond stock is another British company, Gem Diamonds, which was founded in 2005. It’s a smaller company, with mining operations focused only in Lesotho out of the Letseng diamond mine.

Gem Diamonds owns 70% of the Letseng mine. This mine’s claim to fame is that it has the highest dollar value per carat of any diamond mine. In fact, four of the 20 largest known white gem quality diamonds have come out of this mine. The largest was the 910-carat Lesotho Legend which sold for $40 million in 2018.

This company has produced no shortage of incredible diamonds over the years. And if the Letseng mine keeps recovering large high-quality diamonds, this will definitely be a top diamond mining stock to watch.

Lucara Diamond Corp

The final stock on this list is Lucara Diamond. It’s a Canadian company that was founded in 2009. This company focuses mainly on the mining side of the diamond industry, with its primary operations in Botswana.

It has 100% ownership of the Karowe diamond mine which has a throughput of between 2.5 and 2.8 million tons of rough diamonds per year. Lucara Diamond recovered three diamonds over 1,000 carats and 25 diamonds over 300 carats from this mine. It’s one of the world’s largest producers of high-quality diamonds over 10.8 carats.

Lucara Diamond also owns Clara Diamond Solutions, a secure digital sales platform. The platform’s goal is to modernize the existing diamond supply chain. It’s one of the top diamond stocks that gives investors exposure to more than just mining.

Another Diamond Stock to Consider

Although it isn’t a pure diamond play, Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE: SIG) is another good choice. That’s because Signet Jewelers is the world’s largest retailer of diamond jewelry. So, you would still have exposure to the diamond industry, just not the mining side.

You might not have heard of Signet Jewelers before, but you’ve probably heard of some of its subsidiaries. It owns some of the largest jewelry stores in the U.S., like Zales, Kay Jewelers, Jared and more. It also acquired the online retailed James Allen to capitalize on the push to e-commerce.

The Bottom Line on Diamond Stocks

The diamond industry is one that has stood the test of time and these diamond stocks could do the same. Although it was challenged in the pandemic (like every other industry), it bounced back well in 2021 and is poised to do the same this year.

But as always, do your own research and due diligence before making any investment decisions. Furthermore, you may want to consider signing up for a few of the best investment newsletters. These daily briefings give readers expert stock insights, chart pattern analysis and stock forecasting that may help you enhance your portfolio.

The post Top 5 Diamond Stocks To Buy appeared first on Investment U.

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Highlights of My Weekly Reading and Viewing

Timothy Taylor, “Some Economics of Pharmacy Benefit Managers,” The Conversable Economist, September 28, 2023. This is the nicest treatment of the facts…

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October 1, 2023

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Timothy Taylor, “Some Economics of Pharmacy Benefit Managers,” The Conversable Economist, September 28, 2023. This is the nicest treatment of the facts that I’ve seen. I confess that I’ve seen PBMs as something of a black box rather than doing the standard middleman treatment that Tim does.

Tim highlights the work of Matthew Fiedler, Loren Adler, and Richard G. Frank in “A Brief Look at Key Debates About Pharmacy Benefit Manufacturers,” Brookings Institution, September 7, 2023.

Ending paragraph:

As in most economic discussions about the role of middlemen, it’s important to remember that they (usually) don’t just sit around with their hands out, collecting money. Some entity needs to negotiate on behalf of health insurance companies with drug manufacturers and pharmacies. Some entity needs to process insurance claims for drug prices. I do not mean to defend the relatively high drug prices paid by American consumers compared to international markets, nor to defend the costs and requirements for developing new drugs, nor to defend some of the mechanisms used by drug companies to keep prices high. But while it might be possible to squeeze some money out of PBMs for slightly lower drug prices, and it’s certainly possible to mess up PBMs in a way that leads to higher drug prices, it doesn’t seem plausible that reform of PBMs is going to be a powerful lever for reducing drug prices.

Thomas W. Hazlett, “Maybe Google Is Popular Because It’s Good,” Reason, September 27, 2023. I think Hazlett is the best writer in economics. This piece is a good sample.

An excerpt:

The innovation was simple in design, complex in execution, and radical in result. The business achieved a rare triple play: First, a robust new web crawler devised a superior method for finding and tagging the world’s digital content, deploying cheap PCs linked in formations to achieve momentous computing power (Brin’s genius). Second, this more prolific database of global digital content was better cataloged. A clever “Page Rank” score evaluated keyword matches, countering the influence of scammers by scrutinizing the quality of their web page links (Page’s inspiration). Third, “intention-based advertising” displayed commercial messages to searchers self-identified as ready to buy. For instance, the internet user wondering about “coho salmon, Ketchikan, kids” gave Hank’s Family Fishing B&B in Alaska a digital target for its 10 percent off coupon, while signaling to Olay not to bother advertising its skin care products. This solved the famous marketing dilemma: “I know I’m wasting half my ad budget, I just don’t know which half.” Businesses loved these tiny slices of digital real estate, and Google mined gold.

Fiona Harrigan, “America’s Immigrant Brain Drain,” Reason, October 2023.

Excerpt:

In June, The Hechinger Report outlined how foreign governments are welcoming U.S.-trained international students. The United Kingdom offers a “high potential individual” visa, which authorizes a two-year stay and is available to “new graduates of 40 universities….21 of them in the United States.” Recruiters from Australia are “attending job fairs and visiting university campuses” in the United States. From 2017 to 2021, according to the Niskanen Center, a Washington-based think tank, Canada managed to attract almost 40,000 foreign-born graduates of American universities.

Most international students want to stay in the U.S. after graduating, but very few are able to do so. The U.S. does not have a dedicated postgraduate work visa. Canada and Australia, meanwhile, have streamlined the steps from graduation to employment to permanent residency. Graduates in the U.S. can complete Optional Practical Training, but it does not lead to permanent residency and lasts a maximum of three years.

Personal note: Actually the maximum of 3 years for Practical Training sounds good. When I took advantage of the F-1 Practical Training visa to be on the faculty of the University of Rochester, the max was only 18 months.

David Friedman, “Consequences of Climate Change,” September 24, 2023. David does his typical calm, clear, masterful job of laying out the facts. He takes the IPCC reports as given and then follows the implications, uncovering a lot of misleading claims in the process. While David takes as given that the earth will heat about another degree centigrade by about the end of the century, he lays out why we can’t be sure that the net effects are negative or positive. Watch about the first 35 minutes of his speech, before he gets to Q&A. I would point out highlights but there is zinger after zinger. And he references his blog and his substack where you can get details.

The pic above is of David Friedman giving his talk.

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Russia’s Military Budget Set To Rise By 70%

Russia’s Military Budget Set To Rise By 70%

Via Remix News,

Russian military spending is set to rise by almost 70 percent — to €106…

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Russia's Military Budget Set To Rise By 70%

Via Remix News,

Russian military spending is set to rise by almost 70 percent — to €106 billion — by 2024, according to a Russian Finance Ministry document published Thursday, an increase that illustrates Moscow’s determination to continue its military intervention in Ukraine despite the human and economic costs.

According to the document, Russian defense spending will increase by 68 percent in 2024 compared to this year and will reach 10.8 trillion rubles (€106 billion).

As a result, the amount allocated to defense will represent about 30 percent of total federal spending in 2024 and 6 percent of GDP — a first in Russia’s modern history.

The budget for internal security is set to rise to 3.4 trillion rubles (€33 billion), almost 10 percent of annual federal spending.

The priorities for this budget are outlined as “strengthening the country’s defense capacity” and “integrating the new regions” of Ukraine whose annexation Moscow has demanded, as well as “social aid for the most vulnerable citizens,” just months ahead of the Russian presidential elections in spring 2024.

Conversely, total spending on education, healthcare and environmental protection accounts for barely a third of the defense budget, according to ministry figures. Overall, federal spending will total 36.7 trillion rubles (€359 billion), a dramatic 20 percent increase over 2023.

The government, however, has explained little about how it will finance this large increase, as Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Musustin said last Friday that revenues from the sale of hydrocarbons will be down sharply and will account for “a third of next year’s budget” in 2024, whereas before the invasion of Ukraine, they accounted for half the budget.

The sector used to drive Russia’s growth, hydrocarbon sales are declining due to international sanctions and the European Union’s determination to move away from energy dependence on Moscow.

One indication that the government expects a delicate month ahead for the Russian economy is that it has announced that it has based its budget forecast on the assumption of a dollar worth around 90 rubles, thus betting on a weakening of the national currency in the medium term. The draft budget law for 2024-2026 is due to be sent to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, on Friday.

Tyler Durden Sun, 10/01/2023 - 08:10

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Atlantic Overfishing: Europe’s Worst Offenders

Atlantic Overfishing: Europe’s Worst Offenders

Each year, agriculture and fisheries ministers decide on total allowable catches (TACs) for…

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October 1, 2023

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Atlantic Overfishing: Europe's Worst Offenders

Each year, agriculture and fisheries ministers decide on total allowable catches (TACs) for commercial fishing.

Scientific bodies, such as the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), provide information on the state of fish stocks around the world and recommend maximum catch levels per zone to ensure sustainable fishing.

However, this scientific advice is all too often ignored by the authorities, jeopardizing the sustainability of marine resources.

Statista's Martin Armstrong shows in the following infographic, based on the latest report from the New Economics Foundation, these European countries are the worst offenders for this, having on numerous occasions set their fishing quotas in the North-East Atlantic in excess of the sustainability recommendations in recent years.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Sweden exceeded its recommended TAC by almost 33 percent in 2020 (the latest year available), equivalent to 12,000 tonnes of fish, followed by Denmark (6 percent, 20,000 tonnes) and France (6 percent, 17,000 tonnes).

Ireland, Belgium, Spain and the UK all exceeded their targets by between 2 and 4 percent.

The year before, in 2019, the overshoot of the sustainable fishing threshold in the zone was even more pronounced: 7 percent of the recommended TAC for Spain, 9 percent for France, 10 percent for Belgium, 18 percent for Germany, 20 percent or more for Denmark, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and 52% for Sweden.

Tyler Durden Sun, 10/01/2023 - 07:35

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