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The fourth quarter figures, you see, were remarkably robust. Revenue climbed a healthy 17.6% year-on-year to $12.1 billion, a sum that would make most chaps sit up and take notice. Earnings per share perked up by a respectable 30.2% to $0.56, and free cash flow positively galloped ahead by 35.8% to $1.9 billion. Netflix remains, undeniably, the king of the streaming jungle, boasting over 325 million paid subscribers – a truly staggering number when you think about it. They’re launching a good deal of fresh content, and that, naturally, is attracting more of the paying public. A decidedly promising state of affairs, wouldn’t you agree?

This represents a new allocation for Generali, comprising 1.29% of their reportable Assets Under Management (AUM). AUM, for the uninitiated, is a term that sounds far more impressive than it actually is. It essentially means the total value of all the things they’re looking after. Like a very large, slightly anxious sheepdog. Their top holdings, for those keeping score at home, are as follows:

They’re paying two billion dollars for this thing, a mix of cash and stock. Seventy percent stock. Stock! Like that’s a solid commitment. It’s Monopoly money with extra steps. And Stellar shareholders are thrilled, naturally. Up twelve percent. Because getting pieces of paper that might be worth something later is apparently a cause for celebration. It’s… illogical.

The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that Shaker Financial, during the final quarter of the previous year, parted ways with 171,140 shares of CSQ. The value, as calculated by the quarterly average, amounted to the aforementioned $3.26 million. A decline in the position’s overall worth – a mere $3.29 million – accompanied this sale and the inevitable shifts in market sentiment. Such is the dance of capital; a perpetual motion machine powered by optimism and regret.

Early in the year, Hyperliquid seemed poised to be the breakout crypto of 2024. It began at $24.12, a perfectly respectable sum, and briefly soared to $59.30 in September. A bit exuberant, perhaps, but then again, exuberance is something of a hallmark of the crypto world. Unfortunately, much of that initial momentum evaporated by December. It has since clawed back some ground, and as of late January, it was up over 50% in a week, trading around $33.43. A respectable recovery, though it leaves it still some distance from its peak. Whether this constitutes a fading star or a buying opportunity is, as always, the million-dollar question. Or, in this case, the roughly $33 question.

One does not expect miracles from a thousand dollars. A doubling in a season is a fever dream. But a steady tending, a mindful placement… that can yield a harvest, not of abundance, but of resilience. A shield against the inevitable storms. And perhaps, in the long run, a measure of peace.

They’ve managed to generate a return on equity of 22.7%, which, if you’re not fluent in financial jargon, is a lot. And a total stock return of 34.8% – nearly double the S&P 500. Which, frankly, is astonishing. It’s the kind of performance that makes you wonder if they’ve stumbled upon some secret financial alchemy, or simply had a lucky run. The Agency MBS market, apparently, was the star performer in fixed income last year, returning 8.6% – the best since 2002. Who knew?

There was Nvidia, a positively booming sort of company, up a whopping 38.9%. And then Alphabet, the Google people, who strolled ahead with a rather impressive 65.4%. Are these two worth a bit of your hard-earned cash this year? Well, for those who play the long game, the answer is a resounding… possibly. Let’s delve a little deeper, shall we?

For those investors burdened with the anxieties of a turnaround – a rather pedestrian term, don’t you think, for the intricate dance of resuscitation and reinvention? – Wednesday’s pronouncements offered a momentary reprieve. Comparable store sales, those meticulously tallied measures of consumer indulgence, did, indeed, accelerate. And, most delightfully, a return to positive traffic trends in the American heartland. A small victory, perhaps, but one savored all the more for its scarcity.

Amphenol had become something of a favored son, a company lifted by the fervor surrounding artificial intelligence. It’s a simple equation, really. More data, more power, more need for the unseen connectors that make it all possible. They’d gone from a steady, unglamorous builder of industrial cabling to a darling of the investment houses. The fourth quarter saw sales swell by nearly fifty percent, a growth rate that feels…unnatural, in the long view. Organic growth, they call it – thirty-seven percent – as if the land itself had yielded a sudden bounty.