And all the while the gold beneficiaries kept stacking up. Focus Minerals rallied more than 2000 per cent after resurrecting underground production at Coolgardie. Altair delivered a clean 10-bagger on the gold-plus-rare-earths mix and Mount Ridley Mines – delivered the rare earths plus gallium one-two punch at a time when gallium was strutting its stuff at nearly $1 million a tonne. Mt Ridley ran as much as 4000 per cent at one point. Some understandable profit taking since has seen the price retrace from those highs. The Mount Ridley share price is itโs now โonlyโ up about 810 per cent year-to-date.
Even the IPO market found its swagger again. 3D Printing player Metal Powder Works floated at 20 cents and ran skywards towards $5 in no time, reminding everyone that Australians will still back industrial innovation when the winds turn even slightly favourable.
But it wouldnโt be a proper ASX year without a few disasters. Biotech, the marketโs most emotionally volatile sector, earned its reputation again. Botanix collapsed 75 per cent, Telix shed 60 per cent and CSL – the former King of the Index – lost 36 per cent, wiping nearly $30 billion in value after softer vaccine guidance.
So, what does 2026 look like? Recent rate cuts in the US and Australia are finally filtering into forecasts. Goldโs bull market isnโt done; central banks keep buying, geopolitics keep deteriorating and governments keep spending money they donโt have. Silver, having doubled this year, is no longer the runner-up metal but a fully-fledged protagonist that suddenly matters to industrial supply chains and precious metals investors alike. Rare earths, gallium, scandium and antimony remain front-and-centre of Western industrial strategies. The global AI build-out still needs copper, semiconductors, specialised alloys and power infrastructure that remains chronically under-invested. The small-cap revival isnโt a fad; itโs a thing โ and it just might be here to stay.
Dollar Bill has seen enough false dawns to know that markets can turn on a dime. Bond markets remain temperamental, the Fed hates being second-guessed and volatility has a way of turning up uninvited. But this year wasnโt driven by euphoria – it was driven by capital finally rediscovering its appetite for growth and leverage after two years of hiding in defensive fortresses. That rarely unwinds quickly.
As Dollar Bill nursed the last of the vintage port hidden in the special place by the barman at the club this week, one of the old miscreants leaned over and said, โHey Dollar, this feels like 2005 again.โ Admittedly, heโs usually wrong, but for once, he might have stumbled into the truth. For the first time in years, the market feels alive – and in 2026, it might even start to believe in itself a little more.
Dollar Bill thinks those algorithms that ate his broker might have a hard time predicting next yearโs winners and hats off to that.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
