The Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) share price and the Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB) share price are among the best performers on the market on Monday.

In afternoon trade their shares are up an impressive 12% and 14%, respectively.

Why are Flight Centre and Webjet shares zooming higher?

With no news out of either company, today’s gain could be in relation to speculation that a trans-Tasman travel bubble could soon be launched.

According to Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (ASX: NEC) News, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has reconfirmed her support for a trans-Tasman bubble.

Premier Berejiklian wants this to happen sooner rather than later, commenting: “I’d like to see it happen this side of Christmas.”

And while Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk isn’t keen on opening her borders any time soon, Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham suggested that these plans should not be held back by states.

Mr Birmingham told the Sydney Morning Herald that he wants Australia’s tourism industry to start its recovery from the pandemic with or without the support of the Queensland state government.

He said: “If New Zealand and some Australian states are ready and willing to progress, then the reluctance of other states to open up their domestic borders shouldn’t become an obstacle to progress.”

“The recovery of jobs and small businesses in some states shouldn’t be held back by the decisions of other state governments,” he added.

This potential travel bubble would be a big positive for travel booker such as Flight Centre and Webjet, as well as airline operators Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) and Air New Zealand Limited (ASX: AIZ).

While a full recovery will take some time, the sooner the market starts its slow recovery the better, as it will limit the cash burn these four companies are experiencing right now.

Should you invest?

While I am a big fan of Flight Centre and Webjet, I think their valuations are a little stretched right now. Especially when you factor in the dilution caused by their recent capital raisings.

However, patient investors might do well by holding onto their shares for the long term. But I’m going to be sitting this one out and focusing on other areas of the market which I think offer better value for money.

More reading

• ASX 200 up 1.7%: Flight Centre and Webjet rocket, Afterpay hits record high
• Why Afterpay, Flight Centre, TPG Telecom, & Western Areas are charging higher
• 5 ASX 200 winners and 4 losers of last week
• Why these ASX stocks will be under the spotlight on Monday
• Brokers name 3 ASX 200 shares to buy right now

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Webjet Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Flight Centre Travel Group Limited. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price has continued its positive run and charged higher again on Monday.

At one stage the payments company’s shares were up as much as 10% to a new record high of $49.00.

Why is the Afterpay share price charging higher?

Investors have been buying Afterpay’s shares on Monday due to a combination of positive investor sentiment and the announcement of board changes.

In respect to the latter, this morning the company announced that Elana Rubin will become its Chair with immediate effect. She had been in the role on an interim basis but has been made permanent now.

Rubin will retire from the ME Bank board following its June 2020 meeting, but remain as a Non-Executive Director for Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) and Slater & Gordon Limited (ASX: SGH).

In addition to this, the company has appointed Sharon Rothstein as an Independent Non-Executive Director. She will formally join the board on 1 June 2020.

Rothstein is based in the United States and presently sits on the board of crowd sourced reviews business Yelp. She is also an Operating Partner at growth equity firm, Stripes Group.

What else is driving the Afterpay share price higher?

Investors have been buying the company’s shares this month after it provided a very positive update on its U.S. operations.

That update revealed that there are now more than five million active customers using its buy now pay later service in the country. This makes it the company’s largest geographic segment by some distance, despite it only launching there two years ago.

Impressively, more than one million new customers joined during a ten-week period at the height of the pandemic.

Nick Molnar, Co-Founder and U.S. CEO of Afterpay, commented: “At a time in which ecommerce has become the primary way people are shopping, there is a growing interest and demand among consumers to pay for things they want and need over time using their own money – instead of turning to expensive loans with interest, fees or revolving debt.”

Can its shares go higher?

I feel Afterpay’s shares are probably fully valued at this point. So, I wouldn’t recommend buying shares if you’re only making a short term investment.

But if you’re in for the long haul, then I certainly would be a buyer. I believe its global expansion and potential new product launches in the future will drive strong earnings growth and returns for investors over the next decade and beyond.

More reading

• ASX 200 up 1.7%: Flight Centre and Webjet rocket, Afterpay hits record high
• Should you invest $1,000 in Altium shares today?
• Why Afterpay, Flight Centre, TPG Telecom, & Western Areas are charging higher
• Why Afterpay and cohorts could confirm the economy bottomed in April
• How these 3 ASX financial shares have proved their doubters wrong

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Telstra Limited. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The post The Afterpay share price just hit a new record high: Should you invest? appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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Recent events indicate we are at the beginning of a silver bull market. The silver to gold ratio is larger than it has ever been in my lifetime. Industrial demand is starting to come back online, and the world is seeing increase industrial use for renewable assets and batteries. Also, I stack (or collect) precious metals and I cannot get any until July. 

Precious metals are not formed on earth. They come from the single most violent event in the universe, when a star goes supernova. They then land on earth and through geological processes end up in various types of deposits over millions of years. So not only are they rare on earth, they are some of the rarest metals in the universe!

I have been stacking precious metals for about 30 years now. In this time, I have learned two things about silver in particular.

First, it is very volatile. In US dollars, the gold price has rise by 11.4%, year to date (at the time of writing). Since the silver bull market started (around late April), the silver price in US dollars has risen 10.1% in a month. Second, it always seems to snap back to an average ratio. In the 48 years since 1970, it averaged 57:1. I buy gold when the ratio is close to average, and I buy silver when it is large. Today the ratio is ~103:1.

The silver bull market

South32 Ltd (ASX: S32) owns the silver and lead producing Cannington mine in Queensland. Cannington is one of the world’s largest and lowest cost silver mines. It produces 6% of the total world silver production. With an earnings yield of 13.6% at the time of writing, South32 appears to be selling cheap. For the 3 years it has been profitable it has achieved an average return on capital expended of 27%. This is a very good user of capital.

BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) started out as a silver miner and still produces a lot of silver as a by-product. In FY2019, it produced around 2.9 Moz of silver. BHP is well placed across a range of commodities including the booming iron ore trade as well as future facing copper and nickel production. 

Of the major producers, Oz Minerals (ASX: OZL) processed approximately 630,421 ounces of silver in FY19 as a byproduct of its gold production. However, Sandfire Resources Ltd (ASX: SFR) is in the feasibility stage of a mineral deposit in Botswana with a known silver reserve of 14.6Moz. Its share price is likely to see a bump as the silver bull market takes hold.

Foolish Takeaway

Australia is well placed for the silver bull market – we have the third largest silver reserves on the planet. Our miners also have access to large deposits of silver across the world. We are very cost effective miners with a demonstrated capacity to bring production online quickly. 

More reading

• 3 commodity trends to watch this week
• ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: ASX rallies on mining highs
• Where to invest $5,000 in ASX 200 shares immediately
• Have $500 to invest? Then buy these 5 ASX 200 shares immediately
• ASX 200 drops 1% on Friday

Motley Fool contributor Daryl Mather has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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