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Over the past three years, the market has strutted about like a hypnotized jester unshaken by the collapse of empires-temporary setbacks mere flickers in an otherwise unbreakable mirror. But beneath this veneer of invincibility, an unease stirs, like a suppressed whisper beneath a grand chandelier. And while no herald from the prophets has yet sounded alarms of imminent doom, the specter most likely to terrify the market in 2026 is not some digital innovation or sudden technological revelation, but a primal, relentless force: inflation’s ghostly grip tightening around the economy’s throat, dragging yields upward as lamenting bonds cry out for mercy.

Among the notable decliners, we find the Chinese electric vehicle makers, Nio and Xpeng, their futures resembling the precarious tightrope of fate, where gains can swiftly turn to losses. Nio, having danced closely with the specter of success just yesterday, found itself retreating, albeit still basking in the warmer glow of the week’s overall performance. Meanwhile, the real estate-linked stocks, those vulnerable entities sensitive to the whims of interest rates, like Prologis, also faltered, weighed down by the heavy burden of Fed minutes and the looming presence of 10-year Treasury yields hovering near 4.14%.

Though their charts of market dominion overlap, the disparities in their fiscal burdens, breadth of holdings, and recent tempests may sway investors toward divergent shores.

Let us examine their vital statistics, though numbers often lie like diplomats at a banquet.

VEA’s got more assets than a widow’s inheritance – $260 billion to SPDW’s $33.5. Same 0.03% fee, but VEA’s yield’s higher, if you’re into that sort of thing. Both funds twitched like corpses in a morgue when the market coughed – betas of 1.03 and 1.06. Five years back, they’d both taken bullets: SPDW down 30.23%, VEA 29.71%. Close enough to call it a tie in a knife fight.

On September 30, Hood River’s portfolio acquired 1.51 million shares of Tower Semiconductor (TSEM 2.07%), a transaction that crystallized into $109.22 million of marketable intent. This 1.29% stake in their $8.47 billion constellation of American equities elevates their holdings to 152 celestial bodies-a cosmic portfolio where Tower now orbits as a bright, if peculiar, star.

On a day when the sun burned low over Hong Kong’s skyline and the tides of capital ebbed and flowed like the restless sea, Oxbow Capital Management, a fund as old as the cobblestone streets of its birthplace, filed a report with the SEC that would echo through the halls of financial folklore. In the third quarter, the fund had acquired 1.98 million shares of Wolverine World Wide, staking a claim worth $54.43 million-9.5% of its reported U.S. equity assets-like a gambler placing bets on a horse whose hooves had grown slick with doubt.

As the tale unfolds-according to that same SEC missive-Valiant Capital has now amassed a grand total of 6.48 million shares of our dear friend Core Scientific, culminating in a market value of $116.31 million as of the 30th of September. To add a sprinkle of intrigue, the fund has also secured call options tied to approximately 4.21 million shares; one can only assume they have their eyes firmly set on the future.