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During January, Energy Transfer’s units appreciated 11.9%. While trailing the broader energy sector’s performance, this increase warrants examination. The company’s business model, characterized by fee-based services, provides a degree of insulation from the volatility inherent in upstream commodity pricing. Unlike exploration and production companies directly exposed to fluctuations in natural gas and crude oil prices, Energy Transfer’s revenue stream is predicated on the transportation, storage, and processing of these commodities. This distinction is critical in evaluating its long-term sustainability.

The timing, naturally, is…interesting. Six Flags, you see, is not exactly thriving. A loss for the past year, a rather monstrous one at that, was partially obscured by a $1.5 billion ‘non-cash impairment charge’ – a euphemism, if ever there was one, for acknowledging that certain assets have lost their luster. It’s like admitting the Emperor has no clothes, but doing so with an accountant’s meticulous precision. Vora, having accumulated these shares over the past year, suddenly found itself afflicted with a peculiar impatience. One suspects the specter of diminishing returns haunted their spreadsheets.

The company, on the twenty-seventh of January, deigned to reveal its quarterly accounts. A penny’s surplus upon predicted earnings – a triumph scarcely worthy of trumpet blasts! – and a revenue of one hundred and thirteen billion dollars, falling short of expectation by a mere trifle. A trifle, one might say, that nonetheless pricks the balloon of complacency.

They gave away $4.5 billion to shareholders. That’s a lot of money. Enough to make a small planet uncomfortable. They did it through buybacks and dividends. A perfectly reasonable way to distribute wealth, if you happen to have it. And Marathon does. They have quite a bit.

One might be tempted to cry “disaster!”, to rend one’s garments and proclaim the imminent ruin of this technological titan. But let us, as rational observers, resist such histrionics. Instead, let us examine the causes of this present disquiet, and consider whether the alarm is truly justified, or merely the product of excessive enthusiasm and a surfeit of speculative fervor.

Last year, this same fund languished, a mere 0.4% return a testament to the market’s indifference. The broader S&P 500, though scarcely vibrant, managed a marginal gain. Now, SCHD outpaces it, a sudden blossoming amidst the prevailing economic winter. But let us not mistake the warmth of a temporary flare for the sustaining heat of genuine prosperity.

Alphabet, this behemoth of data and desire, presents a particularly fascinating case. Many, not long ago, pronounced it… finished. A relic of a bygone era, overtaken by the swift currents of cloud computing and the burgeoning promise of artificial intelligence. They saw a giant stumbling, blinded by its own success. It was a judgment steeped in the arrogance of the present, a failure to grasp the enduring power of fundamental strength. Such pronouncements were, of course, predictable. The herd, ever eager to rush towards the precipice, demands a scapegoat, a fallen idol to fuel its own sense of righteousness. But beneath the surface of these pronouncements lay a truth far more compelling, a quiet resilience that only the most patient observer could discern.

Shares in this company have experienced a most irregular course, rising to a considerable height before retreating to a more modest valuation. One cannot help but observe that such volatility is rarely a sign of solid foundations, though it does provide ample opportunity for those of a more speculative turn of mind. The question, therefore, is not merely whether NuScale possesses a promising technology, but whether it possesses the requisite stability to convert that technology into lasting prosperity.

One might observe that investing in oil is rather… pedestrian. But to dismiss Chevron on that basis is to mistake the canvas for the masterpiece. It is not merely about black gold, but about a carefully orchestrated elegance in resource management.

The sectors once gilded with the sheen of progress – technology, communications – now exhibit a peculiar pallor. A decline, one might say. Each of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” – those self-appointed arbiters of market destiny – has begun to list, to falter. Nvidia, once a radiant sun, now casts a strangely elongated shadow. Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and even the audacious Tesla… all afflicted with a similar melancholic downturn. It is as if a mischievous imp has loosened the screws on their carefully constructed empires.