The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that Bank of Nova Scotia strategist Hugo Ste-Marie believes that U.S. dollar weakness combined with supply disruptions and underinvestment in new mines have commodity prices climbing. The Globe's Scott Barlow writes that commodities are priced in U.S. dollars, so when an erratic president threatens and belittles trading partners, it results in selling of U.S. dollar assets and subsequent pressure on the greenback and upward moves in commodity prices. This trend goes a long way in explaining the broad-based nature of recent materials price strength. Precious metals are particularly sensitive to geopolitical instability and U.S. dollar weakness. Silver prices are up almost 50 per cent year-to-date and gold is higher by about $1,000 already in 2026. Copper prices are stabilizing now after a big rally caused by supply shortages. These shortages are likely to be commonplace as the global electrification trend continues. Commodity prices are volatile, silver more than most, so spot prices could pull back and limit gains. But the gains in metals prices have so significantly outperformed the related stock prices that the risk-reward scenario is extremely positive for equities.