President Donald Trump's military intervention in Venezuela is doing more than making geopolitical headlines. It's sending ripples through commodities markets that have analysts dusting off their early-2000s playbooks and talking about supercycles again.

Getting Those Early-2000s Vibes

According to John Velis, a macroeconomic strategist at BNY in New York, the current market environment feels eerily familiar to the commodities supercycle that defined the early 2000s. The ingredients are all there: geopolitical tensions running hot, central banks pivoting toward easier money, and a global surge in money supply that's chasing hard assets.

Velis points to several catalysts driving the rally in commodity prices. Beyond the obvious geopolitical risks, there's the expectation of more dovish central bank policies worldwide and the massive capital expenditure wave tied to AI and technology infrastructure. When you're building data centers and chip factories at scale, you need a lot of copper and steel.

Hard assets have already posted impressive gains early in the year. What started as a precious metals rally in the previous year has now spread to industrial metals, and Velis thinks energy could be next if global growth sentiment for 2026 continues improving. From a valuation perspective, he argues that hard assets look more attractive than equities right now, especially with industrial demand expected to climb.

Smart Money Positioning for the Boom

This isn't exactly coming out of left field. Bank of America had already advised clients earlier this year to stick with gold, load up on uranium, and buy copper before the market fully reprices it. Their reasoning? Rising U.S. industrial policy, a potentially weaker dollar, persistent geopolitical tension, and the tariff uncertainty that keeps everyone guessing.

Commodity analyst Lawson Winder has named his favorite plays in this environment: Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM), Cameco Corp. (CCJ), and Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX). Those picks cover the gold, uranium, and copper bases respectively.

Meanwhile, finance veteran Danny Moses is making an even bolder call. He's predicting gold prices will double from current levels over the next few years, and he thinks that move is already underway. He notes that gold and silver have outperformed most asset classes in 2025, suggesting precious metals have evolved from defensive hedges into leadership assets.

Goldman Sachs is also watching this space closely, though with a warning attached. They're expecting continued extreme volatility in the silver market, driven by tight physical supply in London, trade flows shifting to the U.S., and those same geopolitical frictions that are lifting all boats in the commodities complex.

Whether Trump's Venezuela action proves to be the catalyst for a multi-year commodities boom remains to be seen, but the market is certainly pricing in that possibility.