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I’ve been looking at Broadcom. It’s not exactly a glamorous name, is it? Not like Nvidia, which is currently being treated as some sort of tech messiah. But that’s probably a good thing. Less hype, potentially more… stability. Broadcom makes these custom chips – ASICs, they’re called – for AI tasks. Apparently, at scale, they’re more cost-effective than Nvidia’s GPUs. Which is good. Cost-effectiveness is always good. Especially when your portfolio is looking a bit… stressed.

The fourth-quarter 2025 revenue, a figure of $19.7 billion, exceeded the consensus prediction of $19.2 billion. A minor discrepancy, perhaps, yet it suggests a hidden momentum, a force operating beneath the surface of established calculations. The adjusted earnings per share of $4.52, exceeding the anticipated $4.29, further reinforces this impression. These are not merely numbers; they are coordinates within a complex, multi-dimensional space.

For a while there, Polkadot was… everywhere. A top-ten crypto, the darling of certain tech blogs. Then, it just… wasn’t. It didn’t exactly fail, it just sort of… settled. Like a slightly disappointed houseguest. And honestly, that’s reassuring. In this business, the really loud booms usually precede spectacular implosions. The quiet ones? They might actually build something.

Industrial stocks took a hit today, led by Badger Meter (BMI 11.00%), which dropped 11% after a revenue miss. Apparently, people aren’t buying enough water solutions? I feel like that’s a problem we should not have. Meanwhile, all eyes are on the megacaps reporting earnings. Meta (META 0.43%), Microsoft (MSFT +0.51%), and Tesla (TSLA +0.31%) all gave us numbers today. Tesla beat estimates, which is good, but revenue was down. It’s like getting a compliment on your outfit, then realizing you spilled coffee on your shirt.

But the pronouncements of the Chair, Jerome Powell, hold a weight beyond the immediate numbers. It is in the cadence of his words, the subtle shifts in emphasis, that the true currents of the economic sea reveal themselves. Investors listen not for what is, but for the shadow of what might be.

To those contemplating entry, however, a word of caution. The current valuation possesses a certain… exuberance. A forward price-to-earnings ratio of 47, while not precisely astronomical, does feel a touch feverish, exceeding its five-year average of 41. One might describe it as a beautifully iridescent bubble, tempting, yes, but demanding a discerning eye. Patience, dear reader, is often the most profitable of commodities.

The S&P 500, after a bit of a wobble, slipped a mere 0.03% to finish at 6,976, while the Nasdaq Composite, with a touch more enthusiasm, added 0.17% to close at 23,857. In the world of telecommunications, Verizon Communications, a solid sort of company, closed at $39.41 (a modest gain of 0.23%), and T-Mobile U.S. finished at $186.25 (a slightly more spirited 0.95%) as observers kept a watchful eye on the competitive landscape. A bit of a jostle for position, you might say.

The company speaks of headwinds, a polite term for the inevitable difficulties that attend any large undertaking. They report numbers – revenue, earnings per share – figures that dance on the page, attempting to distract from the underlying narrative. The year just passed was…adequate. Not disastrous, certainly, but not a triumph either. A lingering sense of something lost, perhaps, a former grandeur dimly recalled.

By the close of the day’s tradin’, Stride’s stock price was up more than 14%. A tidy sum, wouldn’t you say? Enough to buy a man a decent pair of boots, maybe even a small farm if he’s lucky and doesn’t spend it all on fancy notions.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.01%) barely budged – a microscopic slip of 0.01% to 6,978. Talk about anticlimactic! The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +0.17%), however, managed a slightly more enthusiastic 0.17% climb to 23,857. Within the semiconductor arena, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +0.28%) closed at $252.74 (up 0.28%) and Nvidia (NVDA +1.59%) finished at $191.52 (up 1.59%). But they were left in the dust by Intel’s rather spectacular rebound. It’s like watching a tortoise race a cheetah…and the cheetah tripped over a rogue ethernet cable.