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And what do we crave from these sullen minerals? Not beauty, not solace, but the cold, humming power of modernity. Our glowing rectangles, our weapons of distant destruction, all dependent on the unwilling gifts of the earth. It is a Faustian bargain, naturally. A trade of environmental degradation and human suffering for the illusion of progress. China, with its characteristic…pragmatism, has long understood this equation. They have borne the cost, the moral weight, with a chilling efficiency.

The only real excitement, if one can call it that, came from the rather unexpected enthusiasm for space ventures. AST SpaceMobile, having secured a government contract – one assumes involving something terribly important and probably expensive – soared 14.29%. Firefly Aerospace, buoyed by an analyst’s upgrade, managed a respectable 12.30% gain. And Novo Nordisk, thanks to a regulatory nod for its weight loss treatment in the U.K., jumped 8.95%. One begins to suspect the entire market is looking for an escape route.

The broader markets, however, displayed a restraint most commendable. The S&P 500 dipped a fraction, and the Nasdaq Composite followed suit, as if to murmur, “Let us observe this spectacle with a judicious eye.” Mara Holdings and Hut 8, fellow adventurers in this digital realm, enjoyed a modest ascent, proving that even in folly, there is a degree of camaraderie. One wonders, though, if their gains are rooted in genuine prosperity or merely a shared delusion.

Revenue, it appears, reached a record high, a statistic which, while impressive, says little about the underlying health of the patient. Net interest and fees also enjoyed a similar flourish, amounting to $6.1 billion for the quarter – a 3% increase, year on year. The net interest income itself was a respectable $3.7 billion, improved by 2%. One assumes this is all perfectly legal.

I’ve got some Cameco (CCJ +3.19%), fine. It’s uranium. They dig it up. They refine it. It’s…logical. They’re the second largest, behind Kazakhstan, which, let’s be honest, nobody really thinks about. 17% of the world’s uranium. Okay. Good for them. They’re making money – 15.18% margin. Up 124% in a year. Which is…fine. But I didn’t buy it for a dividend. That’s the problem. You’re looking at this thinking “passive income”? From Cameco? It’s a pittance. $0.17 a share? Seriously? It’s insulting. They raised it twice. By a little. It’s like they’re doing you a favor. I bought it because, well, it might go up. That’s it. If you’re looking for actual income, you’re looking in the wrong place.

They make chips, these AMD folks. Not the kind you eat. The kind that make computers think. And now, they’re trying to make computers seem to think, with this artificial intelligence business. A lot of hype, naturally. But also, a lot of potential. They say a trillion-dollar market. Which is, frankly, a ridiculous number. But numbers are just numbers, aren’t they?

The S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.06%) experienced a negligible decline, settling at 6,939. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.06%) fared little better, drifting down to 23,515. Among the company’s peers, Dell Technologies (DELL +0.73%) managed a modest gain, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE 2.25%) suffered a slight setback. These fluctuations, one suspects, reflect the usual assortment of anxieties concerning data centers, memory costs, and the general capriciousness of fate. It is all rather predictable, really.

Trading volume reached 176 million shares, a figure exceeding the three-month average by an order of magnitude. This, of course, is merely a numerical artifact, a symptom of the underlying irrationality that governs these exchanges. The company, having emerged in 2015, has experienced a decline of 85% since its initial public offering—a reminder that even the most promising trajectories are susceptible to the whims of chance. One is reminded of Zeno’s paradox, where the arrow, though in motion, never truly reaches its destination.

Our subject, Broadcom, presently valued at a respectable, though hardly regal, $1.7 trillion, aspires to join this select company. A feat requiring, shall we say, a rather ambitious performance – a 77% increase in its stock price by the year 2026. One might inquire: is this a realistic expectation, or merely a grand illusion, a puffery designed to entice the gullible investor? Let us, with a touch of skeptical amusement, examine the script.