About Cabling Installation & Maintenance

Our mission: Bringing practical business and technical intelligence to today's structured cabling professionals

For more than 30 years, Cabling Installation & Maintenance has provided useful, practical information to professionals responsible for the specification, design, installation and management of structured cabling systems serving enterprise, data center and other environments. These professionals are challenged to stay informed of constantly evolving standards, system-design and installation approaches, product and system capabilities, technologies, as well as applications that rely on high-performance structured cabling systems. Our editors synthesize these complex issues into multiple information products. This portfolio of information products provides concrete detail that improves the efficiency of day-to-day operations, and equips cabling professionals with the perspective that enables strategic planning for networks’ optimum long-term performance.

Throughout our annual magazine, weekly email newsletters and 24/7/365 website, Cabling Installation & Maintenance digs into the essential topics our audience focuses on.

  • Design, Installation and Testing: We explain the bottom-up design of cabling systems, from case histories of actual projects to solutions for specific problems or aspects of the design process. We also look at specific installations using a case-history approach to highlight challenging problems, solutions and unique features. Additionally, we examine evolving test-and-measurement technologies and techniques designed to address the standards-governed and practical-use performance requirements of cabling systems.
  • Technology: We evaluate product innovations and technology trends as they impact a particular product class through interviews with manufacturers, installers and users, as well as contributed articles from subject-matter experts.
  • Data Center: Cabling Installation & Maintenance takes an in-depth look at design and installation workmanship issues as well as the unique technology being deployed specifically for data centers.
  • Physical Security: Focusing on the areas in which security and IT—and the infrastructure for both—interlock and overlap, we pay specific attention to Internet Protocol’s influence over the development of security applications.
  • Standards: Tracking the activities of North American and international standards-making organizations, we provide updates on specifications that are in-progress, looking forward to how they will affect cabling-system design and installation. We also produce articles explaining the practical aspects of designing and installing cabling systems in accordance with the specifications of established standards.

Cabling Installation & Maintenance is published by Endeavor Business Media, a division of EndeavorB2B.

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Gold vs. Silver: Which Is the Better Investment in the New Cycle?

gold and silver bars

Over an economic cycle, it is no secret that a few asset classes tend to outperform the rest under the right fundamental conditions, something that investors can get behind to get their capital on what could be the winning side of history. With business activity slowing down for 21 months, according to the manufacturing PMI index, something new has to come around.

The Fed is looking to make that change soon by cutting interest rates, which could spark new business activity due to flexible financing and ample liquidity in the economy. According to the CME's FedWatch tool, the date is now predicted for September 2024, giving investors a reasonable timeline from which to expect these changes to come. Here's how interest rates could affect other market areas, like currencies.

Interest rates significantly drive currency valuation, so lower rates could weaken the dollar. While that's bad for some stocks, it is great for commodities. Any dollar-quoted commodity, like gold and silver, will see its returns amplified. The question becomes, which one? SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEARCA: GLD) and iShares Silver Trust (NYSEARCA: SLV) are good options, as are Royal Gold Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLD) and Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL).

How to Choose the Right Metal for Investors: Gold or Silver?

After Warren Buffett became bullish on the future oil price through his 29% stake in Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE: OXY), traders figured out that natural gas prices could eventually close down the price gap and catch up to oil. This is exactly what is set up to happen right now between gold and silver.

Investors can determine how overextended gold might be versus silver by following the ratio between the two ETFs. Each time this ratio spikes, buying silver as a catch-up play is the more profitable move, and that setup is happening right now after a recent spike.

The opposite is true during a trough when gold becomes the better option. After the recent trough in May 2024, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see gold hit a new all-time high in the past quarter. This is not a rule, however; it is just a statistical phenomenon that investors can take advantage of.

What is closer to a rule, though, is that commodities of all sorts could head higher on rate cuts. If silver offers more upside than gold, investors might look into it.

Apart from the silver ETF, there’s another way to invest in the metal: through basic material stocks or mining companies. Here’s a good example.

Wall Street Favors Hecla Mining Over Royal Gold After Reviewing the Ratio

Just like the silver ETF shows more potential upside versus gold, the mining companies that deal directly with the profit cycle in these commodities also show similar risk and reward profiles. In this case, Hecla Mining is silver’s representative, and Royal Gold is in the opposite camp, representing gold prices.

Wall Street analysts led the way in this spread, as their earnings per share (EPS) growth forecasts immediately favor Hecla over Royal Gold. They expect to see 140% growth in Hecla, significantly above Royal Gold’s forecasts for 25.3% EPS growth. Price targets also followed this trend, showing investors where the trend is headed.

Those at Scotiabank think Royal Gold stock could be worth $157 on a fair price target, calling for a net upside of 11% from where the stock trades today. On the other hand, Hecla Mining got analysts at HC Wainwright to place a valuation of $10.25 on the stock, daring the company to rally by as much as 64.5% from today’s prices.

What is interesting for investors is the way these two stocks have traded in the past year, as both are near their 52-week highs. This should be proof that the market is now becoming more bullish on silver, as the rotation could be getting underway in the coming months.

There are other ways to gauge how the market feels about these commodities, particularly about mining stocks. Investors can do this through valuation multiples, such as the price-to-earnings ratio (P/E). It would make sense to see markets pay a premium valuation for the company they expect to grow the most shortly, and that’s the case with these miners.

Hecla Mining stock is valued at 125x P/E today, which calls for a massive premium over Royal Gold stock’s valuation of 30.2x today. However, the shift in sentiment doesn’t end there; looking into bearish activity can also be a good indicator of where these two stocks stand in the eye of the market.

Royal Gold stock’s short interest rose 3% in the past month. In comparison, Hecla Mining stock’s short interest actually declined by 5.9% in the same period to show bearish capitulation in the face of the higher upside that could be had in silver instead of gold prices.

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