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The analysts of Standard Chartered, those scribes of financial prophecy, foresee a stablecoin market swelling from $230 billion to $2 trillion in three years. A veritable deluge of liquidity. And yet, who shall reap the bounty? Ethereum, with its weathered but unyielding frame, remains the likely steward. One might call it the custodian of calm in a tempest of tokens.

If this ascent materializes, Oracle will join a pantheon of digital oligarchs-Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, and others-each a bureaucratic leviathan in the $2 trillion club. Broadcom and Meta Platforms, currently clinging to the periphery, require merely 16% more growth to complete this surreal tableau of excess. The S&P 500 now trembles under the weight of the “Ten Titans,” whose combined 39% share resembles a corporate coup disguised as market logic.

But let us not dwell too long on what might have been. The future, after all, is a realm where even the devil himself might take an interest in Johnson & Johnson’s quarterly earnings. For this colossus of pharmaceuticals and medical devices, with a market cap of $430 billion, is no mere automaton of industry. It is a creature of contradictions: a dividend aristocrat with a 2.9% yield, yet burdened by a legal specter that haunts it like a shadow at a ball. Its recent payout increases-63 consecutive years of them-suggest the resilience of a saint, while the talcum powder litigation looms like a Gothic cathedral of uncertainty.

Yet, lo and behold! This September, the index exhibits a rather improbable vitality; it has crested by 1.9% as of late. But, dear reader, let us not indulge in premature exultation; over two weeks yet remain, and with them lie the potent specters of wild fluctuations, either soaring higher on angel wings or plummeting earthward with a tragic grace. Hence, we are beckoned to ponder: Is it truly prudent to acquire stocks in this month of warm breezes and waning sun? Let us embark on this intellectual voyage.

So, here we are, just a few weeks ago, Verizon turned in results that caused the market to pause-did I hear “better than expected”? Well, yes. And just like that, they nudged their full-year outlook upwards. Investors can finally see a little more clearly the spectacle of balancing growth spending against shareholder returns. The question lingers though, like an awkward silence-is this juicy high yield an actual gift or just a mirage of a value trap?