Last week I talked about the potential I saw brewing in gold and highlighted four names I was keeping a close eye on. Today, I want to expand a bit on one as it gets ready to release its quarterly earnings. Newmont Mining (NEM), one of the largest gold miners in the world, will report its first-quarter numbers after the bell on Monday, April 24. The consensus estimate is for earnings of $0.23 a share on revenue of $1.75 billion.

Each day the world becomes more connected. At first it was our cell phones, which allowed us to get in contact with someone on the other side of the world within seconds. But now it’s expanded to include so much more. We can turn off lights and program our thermostats. Our refrigerators can tell us when we’re low on milk. That's why I've been keeping a close eye on the Internet of Things (IoT) trend.

Investors did not seem pleased with Netflix’s (NFLX) first-quarter report out after the close on Monday. While earnings of $0.40 a share bested estimates by $0.03, subscriber growth numbers fell short of Wall Street’s expectations. But that wasn't the only thing that made investors nervous. Check out today's article to find out why I'm staying away from this stock right now.

Robotics and automation and the cloud are two other powerful tech trends worth looking at. The first has countless ways to play, including including the manufacturers of the robots, the chip makers that are the brains of the robots, companies that are implementing the devices and more. And the cloud will only become more important as more data is created and storage demands increase.

Many investors view technology as a "been there, done that" investment, so is it really something we should focus on when we talk about the next generation? Absolutely. Tech isn't past its hay day, and I see a whole lot of opportunities brewing here both now and well into the future. I’m talking about the next generation companies at the forefront of the revolutionary technologies.