That’s right: the long-awaited Mania stage in gold may be nigh. How can I make such a claim? After all, some have been screaming “It’s here! It’s here!” for months or even years. So I propose that instead of simply declaring that Mania time is near, I lay out the facts and see if you come to the same conclusion.

Palladium is looking like it might break out of its horizontal trading pattern and follow gold and silver prices higher. If this heappens, says Jeff Clark, then the biggest gains will come in the shares of North American Palladium (PAL) and Stillwater Mining (SWC) – North America’s two largest palladium-mining companies…

Stocks are in a bear market, and many investors are having a tough time figuring out how to trade it. Fortunately for us, we have a map, says Brian Hunt in DailyWealth. If this bear market follows the pattern of the 2000-2002 bear, we should be looking at an August rally in stocks…

Wall Street got thumped yesterday on renewed worries about the financial sector. The major indexes fell more than 2 percent. The Dow lost more than 230 points.

The sector is by no means out of the woods. Investors expect more major credit-related writedowns. They expect earnings to be dismal.

Jeff Clark in The Growth Stock Wire says this all adds up to a great contrarian opportunity. Financials are brutally oversold. Jeff says look out for a two-week rally. Buy banks now and you could be looking at 30% gains…

Now here’s a true contrarian play from Brian Hunt at Stansberry Research: Buy into financial stocks ahead of their earnings results. Successful contrarian investing hinges on exploiting errors in consensus opinion. The consensus now is that financials are going to report catastrophic earnings and their stocks are going to dive… big time. What if, instead of Armaggedon, we get the plague, says Brian. His bet is stocks will rally…

Editor’s Note: It’s all about oil. The black goo is the only indicator right now, says Jeff Clark. When oil hits a short-term top, expect to see a new bottom for stocks…

Editor’s Note: Stock selling is contagious, says Jeff Clark in The Growth Stock Wire. Portfolio managers are updating their stock holdings as the quarter comes to an end, and Jeff thinks there could be some real bargains on offer…

The big picture is as ugly as ever, says Jeff Clark in The Growth Stock Wire. But Jeff thinks we may be shaping up for a rally.

It may not seem that way, of course. The US has been badly buffeted by a lot ugly economic data recently.

Yesterday we heard that house prices plunged 15.3% year-on-year in April. Consumer confidence has dropped to a 16-year low. Heavy hitters such as George Soros and Alan Greenspan are sounding the recession alarm. And Wall Street is shedding jobs — and profits – at record rates.

I just can’t write about stocks today. I want to, but I can’t. My mind is on baseball. You see, I manage my 8-year-old son’s Little League team. And they had their first playoff game last Thursday.