Our Biggest Predictions… Ukraine, Israel, Venezuela?... Quantum Computing Goes Mainstream… and More!

These news stories… insights… and analysis come straight from our internal meetings and chat programs. And they become the building blocks of our biggest and most profitable recommendations.

So the Wiretap will help you keep pace with our thinking — if not give you a head start on our next action alerts.

Here’s what has our editors and analysts fired up this week:

1. Don’t Miss Our Biggest Predictions — and How to Play Them

The upcoming 7 Predictions Summit promises to be our most important webinar of the year.

Jim Rickards… James Altucher… Byron King… Zach Scheidt… Sean Ring… Alan Knuckman… Ray Blanco… and Greg Guethner… will all share their forecasts for the New Year.

They’ll also give you specific recommendations for turning their analysis into action — and hopefully profits!

We’ll go live on Wednesday, Dec. 13, at 3.p.m.

(Please note that we moved the original time up an hour so we don’t compete with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference after the FOMC meeting.)

The broadcast will also feature giveaways, polls and other surprises — so you don’t want to miss it.

But it is a Zoom event, so you will need to register to receive the login instructions.

Click here and enter your name and email address.

It’s our first Predictions Summit since 2021… and I really hope you’ll be a part of it.

If for some reason you can’t tune in live, however, don’t worry.

Not only will you get a chance to view the replay, but I will also email you a recap the day after the event.

2. The Gold Boom Is Just Getting Started!

The gold monkey hammers have run out of steam… just as our team predicted they would.

Today the yellow metal is selling for $2,042 an ounce, down a bit from its spike to $2,121.80 earlier this week.

Our Dan Amoss expects China’s weakening economy will cause Chinese-dependent companies to lower their guidance early next year.

It will set off even more economic worries, pushing more people into precious metals.

But the breakout stars could be the giant mining companies.

Names like Barrick Gold (GOLD) and Newmont Mining (NEM) are still trading as if their primary product was still going sideways.

At the same time, the prices for one of their major costs — diesel fuel — are falling.

“It’s just math,” says Alan.

Zach adds that the situation makes call options on the majors particularly attractive.

The deciding factor will be the companies’ hedging operations — the deals they make to protect themselves from lower gold prices.

“Gold miners might be fighting the last war,” Byron says. He’ll dig into it in an upcoming article.

3. Ukraine… Israel… Venezuela?

It’s becoming increasingly clear that Ukraine’s counter-offensive has failed.

Just this week, we learned that the Ukrainian military was forced to change its plans just four days into the fighting.

And President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the country will need to focus on defense… while convincing more of his citizens to join the fight.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to pound Hamas in Gaza.

The Israeli military is drawing up plans to flood the terrorist group’s tunnels with seawater. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Israeli Defense Forces will stay in Gaza even after the fighting ends.

The U.S. Senate is debating how many taxpayer dollars to throw into these conflict zones. One key sticking point is whether to appropriate more money to U.S. border security, too.

We’re also keeping an eye out for conflicts that could break out much closer to home.

Argentina’s newly elected president, Javier Milei, and his government continue to push to have the Falkland Islands handed over to them.

While military action seems unlikely, it can’t be ruled out — though it would probably go as well for Argentina as it did last time.

But we can’t say the same thing about Venezuela’s claims on territory in Guyana.

The Venezuelan government held a referendum to decide whether the country should declare sovereignty over a large chunk of its neighbor.

While the vote seems to have favored the action, there are questions about turnout.

Still, if Venezuela moves in, there isn’t a lot Guyana can do about it. There’s nothing the United States can do, either.

“This is one of those snake pits to which U.S. and Royal Marines would go,” Bryon says. “Except all US/UK forces are tied up elsewhere…”

An invasion would hurt Exxon Mobil (XOM) worst of all, because it has extensive operations in the country.

Venezuela has given the company 90 days to stop its offshore drills.

4. A Few More Years for Fido — and Maybe You!

A company called Loyal for Dogs has asked the FDA for permission to test a drug designed to help canines live longer lives.

And that’s not the only dog-related life-extension in the works. The Dog Aging Project is also trying to accomplish the same thing with a drug called rapamycin.

We’re not talking about immortality here — just a few extra years for your furry best friend.

Still, dogs age faster than us… so extending their lifespan for even a year or two could be a significant milestone.

Plus, it’s a lot easier to get approval for animal drugs…

Rays says that targeting the veterinary markets is “the quick way to begin to monetize it, then figure out how to nail down the science for humans.”

The companies behind these pushes are private, but there are other drug companies exploring similar compounds.

There have also been a lot of false starts in this area, which is why Ray is cautiously looking at possible contenders.

5. Quantum Computing Goes Mainstream

On Sunday, 60 Minutes aired a piece on the promise — and perils — of quantum computing.

Of course, Ray has been telling you about the technology for a long time now.

And while it still has a long way to go before it’s practical for everyday use, Ray says, whoever cracks it first “is going to rule the world.”

The world will need the advanced computers, too, because we’re reaching the limits of what the current crop can do.

The costs of training the next-generation of artificial intelligence with the chips we have available is astronomical. Quantum computing, on the other hand, “turn’s Moore’s law on its head.”

Alan points out that 60 Minutes has a habit of clueing Wall Street onto scientific innovations.

After the show ran a story on Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technology, CRISPR-related stocks soared. 

“This is like that moment for quantum computing,” Alan says.

As you’d probably imagine, many of the big-name tech stocks are working in the quantum space — Alphabet Inc. (GOOG)... Microsoft Inc. (MSFT)... Intel Corp. (INTC)...

Ray says one surprising name on that list is Honeywell International (HON).

There are also a number of small companies working to pioneer this tech, too. Ray is looking to see if any are worth investing in at this stage.

And that wraps up this week’s Wiretap.