Gold miners have been the worst performing sector in the last six months. The charts on stocks like Randgold Resources Ltd. (ADR) (NASDAQ:GOLD) and Yamana Gold Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AUY) are truly scary as they have seen drops of over 30% in that time frame.

Basic material stocks became popular with the increase in raw material prices due to the strong growth of China from the recent year. Not only directly commodity mining stocks exploded, also supplier of mining equipment started to boom. The basic material sector is a small investment field with around 600 listed companies. I made a list of the best stocks picks for next year. My criteria are:

It is an endless debate for investors interested in gold. Should they buy a direct play on the gold price, either gold bullion itself or even so-called paper gold with an ETF such as the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD)? Or should they invest into gold equities, particularly the larger, higher quality gold mining companies?

The next couple of days in the stock market could be on the quiet side. You see, the Federal Reserve is holding a two day FOMC meeting on Tuesday, and Wednesday. Many institutional traders are going to be on hold until they hear what the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says. As you know, most institutional traders and investors are just dying to hear the words quantitative easing three (QE-3). The likelihood of this happening this time around is very slim.

The Ben Bernanke's comments were just released before he testifies in front of a Joint Economic Committee. It should be noted that gold, silver, and gold mining stocks are declining lower. This tells us all that the Federal Reserve is not looking to implement another quantitative easing program at this time.  ...

This morning, after the U.S. Labor Department announced the disappointing non-farm payroll report gold started to surge higher. The catalyst for the rise in gold is the anticipation and speculation of another quantitative easing program by the Federal Reserve. Today, the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD) are trading higher by more than $5.00 from the pre-market low to $155.49 a share.