Investors are set to close out the year with good gains.

The world is a difficult place for phone companies. The margins and profits for companies like Telstra in earlier years were based on an environment that no longer exists.

The big-picture fundamentals for commodities stocks is still in place. Nothing has actually changed. The sell-off in some sectors was not warranted.

It's mostly a function of the aging population, the increased spending of people over 55 on health, the whole skew in society toward litigation and the need for extra tests. If you happen to be the company that's doing the tests, well that's good for your revenue.

These are the strongest global conditions for metals since the sixties, since bell-bottoms were in. There's room for the miners' earnings to grow more than the market currently expects.

I simply don't think that resources shares have priced in all of the potential for even further commodities price hikes yet.

There's something new to worry about now with oil. There's always plenty of supply-side shocks with oil, and it's not found in the most stable parts of the world.

Earnings growth is still in the pipeline for next year and commodities forecasts are being revised up, so no one is willing to pull the plug on resources stocks just yet. Some of them are in play, so there's added incentive to buy gold stocks.

BHP and Rio are setting themselves up for growth for the next five years. Volumes will go up and that will boost their earnings.

There have been more surprises on the upside than the downside, and the outlook statements have been encouraging enough to at least convince investors to stay in the market.