Gold pack

The following basket contains two companies related to materials and industrials sector. Barrick produces and sells gold. Additionally, it uses Caterpillar heavy machinery, haul trucks, wheel loaders, and energy systems from Caterpillar via regional dealers.

We assume that recent gold price increase will positively affect Barrick stock price. By the end of the year gold price is forecasted to be around $5000 per Oz level. Caterpillar not only provides machinery for M&M sector but also for energy, transportation, and construction segments. Recently Caterpillar dealer Barloworld Zambia has announced the successful delivery of a Cat 995 wheel loader – the largest wheel loader in the Caterpillar product line – to Barrick’s Lumwana copper mine.

Barrick Mining Corporation [Internal score 68/100] is a Canadian gold mining company. It is one of the largest in the world. In addition to gold, Barrick mines and markets copper. It manages a portfolio of high-quality assets (Tier-1) in North and South America, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. Barrick is among the industry leaders in efficiency due to economies of scale and high metal concentrations in its ore. AISC for the second quarter of 2026 was amounted at $1,866 per ounce level.

According to the financial report for the 2nd quarter of 2026 revenue increased 44% y-o-y and amounted to $5.3B. EBITDA margin for the quarter was above 60% level. Net income exceeds $1.4B vs $802 mln for the same quarter in 2025. Company is able to generate positive FCF which is 7% of the revenue and stays positive for at least each quarter of the last 6 years.

Caterpillar Inc [Internal score 48/100] is an American industrial giant and the world’s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and gas engines, industrial turbines, and locomotives. Key business segments of the company are Construction Industries, Resource Industries and Energy & Transportation. Additionally, main recent growth drivers should be noted: Infrastructure programs in the US, the commodity Supercycle, and service revenue growth. Specially the second one makes M&M corporations renew and update their fleets.

According to the recent financial report the Backlog is $72B which is 92% higher y-o-y. Resource Industries revenue for the 2nd quarter of 2026 was 4.6B (+18% y-o-y). This segment provided 22% of the total revenue. The whole company revenue increased 24% yo-y and exceeded $20.5B. Net income for the quarter was 3.6B vs 2.2B for the same period in 2025. FCF level for the period was 3.3B. It is also positive each quarter since the 2022.

The timing looks attractive because the backdrop has turned more supportive for both sides of the trade. Gold has just reached a three-month high after larger US Treasury bond buybacks weakened the dollar, while this week’s inflation data and Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech could further reduce the risk of a September Fed hike. That supports Barrick just as its settlement with Newmont removes the Nevada dispute and clears the way for its North American IPO, while higher metal prices, data-centre construction and infrastructure spending should keep demand for Caterpillar equipment strong.