Industrials, financials, and those who transport us to warmer climates—the travel companies—attempted to recoup some recent losses. It’s a curious thing, this desire to erase the past. Norwegian Cruise Line, a vessel of dreams and buffet lines, rose a respectable 6.17% to $20.12. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, burdened with the weight of passengers and expectations, also saw modest gains. One pictures weary travelers, and even wearier accountants.
Trading volume reached 56 million shares, a figure some will no doubt trumpet as evidence of surging interest. This is, in fact, a 17 percent increase on the three-month average. The company went public in 2020, and has since seen a growth of 1594 percent. Such numbers are impressive, certainly, but they tell us little about the underlying health of the enterprise, or its long-term prospects. They are, rather, a testament to the power of speculation, and the eagerness of investors to believe in the next ‘disruptive’ technology.
The broader market, one notes, displayed a certain degree of optimism. The S&P 500 advanced by 1.16% to 6,582, and the Nasdaq Composite enjoyed a climb of 1.38% to 21,947. Ford and General Motors also managed a respectable showing, though one suspects their fortunes are more tethered to the mundane realities of automotive manufacturing than to the ethereal promises of artificial intelligence. A sensible state of affairs, really.
Despite this upward trajectory, this fleeting moment of apparent solvency, the possibility of further gains seems… improbable, yet not entirely dismissible. One is compelled, against better judgment, to consider the proposition of investment. A strange compulsion, akin to a moth drawn to a flickering, unreliable bulb.
One observes, with a certain melancholy, the recurring pattern of human endeavor. Each new invention, each perceived leap forward, is greeted with a frenzy of expectation, a belief that this time, surely, the rules have changed. Yet, history reveals a more sober truth: fortunes are made and lost not merely on innovation, but on the patient accumulation of value, on the discernment of true worth amidst the clamor of the market. Mr. Cramer, in his recent observations, speaks to this very point, warning against the seductive allure of unrestrained speculation in the realm of technology.
But, as seasoned investors are well aware, a considerable amount of noise does not necessarily translate into a commensurate amount of financial benefit. The question, therefore, arises: could a moderately sized investment in Fluor transform an ordinary mortal into a millionaire? A fascinating proposition, wouldn’t you agree?
Let us examine the particulars, as a physician might inspect a curious ailment. Monsieur Manko parted with 91,109 shares, leaving him with a remaining hoard of 215,166. A considerable sum, to be sure, valued at approximately $6 million. One might almost suspect he believes in the future prospects of the enterprise, despite this modest reduction in his holdings. A most curious paradox, wouldn’t you agree?
Vitesse, you see, is an oil company with a fondness for the Bakken formation up in North Dakota – a place where wrestlin’ a livin’ out of the earth is a full-time job. They’re sensitive to oil prices, naturally, bein’ dependent on gettin’ a fair price for their product. But they operate in a right peculiar fashion. They don’t own much of the actual wells themselves – just 9%, mind you – they mostly put their money in wells run by other operators. It’s like bein’ a silent partner in a gold mine, expectin’ a share of the glitter without gettin’ your boots muddy.
Trading volume, I observe, reached a positively dizzying 114 million shares – a good 240% above the three-month average. The company, having burst onto the scene in 2007, has, rather impressively, grown by 2,338% since then. A most agreeable trajectory, wouldn’t you agree? One feels a certain confidence in their ability to muddle through, even when faced with a spot of legal bother.
You’ve likely encountered the whispers of Google’s Tensor Processing Units – the TPUs, as the initiates call them.1 These are, you see, Google’s attempt to build something that doesn’t rely entirely on the, shall we say, dominant forces in the graphics processing unit market. A noble effort, certainly. But what the breathless pronouncements from the tech scribes conveniently omit is that Google doesn’t actually make these things, not entirely. They have a partner, a rather crucial one, and that partner is Broadcom. A fact that strikes me as… well, let’s just say the market has a peculiar habit of overlooking the folks who actually build things.