BofA’s ‘triple momentum’ stocks in gold, defense, nuclear, AI: WDC, GD, NVDA, and more
Nov. 28, 2025 10:07 AM ET
By: Monica L. Correa, SA News Editor
Gold stocks ( GLD), defense ( ITA), ( XAR), nuclear ( NLR), ( NUKZ), and rare earths ( REMX) subsectors rank above all global sectors, according to Bank of America’s “triple momentum” analysis.
The analysis, which combines earnings, price, and news momentum indicators, shows active long-only funds maintaining positions close to benchmark weight in these sectors.
The assessment combines these characteristics, stock rankings, investor positioning, and valuation trends to provide a complete picture of current market sentiment. This approach aims to determine “how much has been priced in” for each sector, according to BofA, offering investors guidance on where opportunities might still exist despite the strong performance already observed in these thematic investments.
Average Triple Momentum Rank of Global Themes ranked relative to global sectors (BofA Global Quantitative Strategy, MSCI, IBES, RavenPack)
Within each investment theme, BofA Quant strategists identified top-performing stocks across different regions.
In the U.S., Celestica ( CLS), Seagate Technology ( STX), Western Digital ( WDC), Lumentum Holdings ( LITE), and Amkor Technology ( AMKR) are the stocks with the highest triple momentum ranking within the AI theme.
Within the defense theme, the highest-ranking stocks are IonQ ( IONQ), V2X ( VVX), General Dynamics ( GD), BWX Technologies ( BWXT), and Leidos ( LDOS).
Within gold: New Gold ( NGD), Equinox Gold ( EQX), IAMGOLD Corp. ( IAG), Barrick Mining ( B), and Dundee Precious ( OTCPK:DPMLF).
Within nuclear energy: Talen Energy ( TLN) and BWX Technologies ( BWXT).
Within quantum computing: Quantum Computing ( QUBT), IonQ ( IONQ), and Nvidia ( NVDA).
Lastly, within rare earths, the group is headed by MP Materials ( MP) in the U.S.
Investment positioning data also revealed a notable underweight stance by investors in quantum computing and AI sectors despite their strong momentum. BofA strategists explained this phenomenon is “largely because of the difficulty overweighting stocks with extremely large index weights,” while noting that funds have been actively buying shares across all themes, with quantum computing ( QTUM) seeing the most significant additions over the past year.
In addition, valuation metrics showed substantial variation across these sectors, with implications for potential future performance, said Nigel Tupper, chief global quantitative strategist at BofA.
According to the analysis, “rare earths ( REMX) have the highest prospective PE, while gold ( GLD) has the lowest,” providing insight into relative valuation levels.
BofA strategists further observed that “quantum computing ( QTUM) has the highest price-to-book trailing while nuclear ( NLR), ( NUKZ) has the lowest,” suggesting different risk-reward profiles across these investment themes. |
