Gold-mining stocks gaining strength?

Gold-mining stocks may have just begun to gain strength as the precious metal climbs. The ratio between the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners exchange-traded fund and the SPDR 500 ETF jumped 28% for the year through Wednesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The mining ETF set a seven-year high Wednesday and closed at $32.51. It’s headed to $40 “in the next three to four months, and quite possibly much sooner,” Michael Purves, Tallbacken Capital Advisors LLC’s chief executive officer, wrote Wednesday in a report. Jonathan Krinsky, chief market technician at Bay Crest Partners LLC, set a $42 target Wednesday.