usdaed

The usual suspects have been at play: oil prices doing their impression of a startled cobra, a frantic rush to anything shiny and traditionally considered ‘safe’ (gold, silver, and the increasingly popular habit of hiding under the duvet), and a predictable boost for those who manufacture things that go ‘boom’. However, a closer look reveals that many companies, caught in the crosscurrents, are less affected than the headlines suggest. Morgan Stanley’s wizards² have pointed out, with the sort of hindsight that’s always impeccably clear, that markets tend to shrug off these sorts of disruptions. In fact, they’ve historically been up a bit after a month, a good deal more after six, and positively buoyant after a year. Go figure.

The question isn’t simply whether this dip is a buying opportunity. It’s about whether the promise of this chain, its potential to offer something different, hasn’t begun to wither on the vine. A man has to consider these things. A man does.

Vanguard. The name itself sounds…stolid. Reliable. And in this business, that’s almost a dirty word. But beneath the beige exterior, they’ve built a MACHINE. Trillions under management as of December 31, 2025 – a figure that suggests either unparalleled competence or a terrifying collective delusion. Either way, it means they know how to handle money. Or, more accurately, how to shuffle it around while collecting a tiny percentage of the carnage. VOO, tracking the S&P 500, is their flagship operation. It’s a bet on the American economy, a gamble that the relentless engine of innovation will continue to spew forth profits, even as the foundations crumble. It’s a historically… reasonable bet. Though reason, let’s be honest, has rarely factored into any of this.

The question is, will this upward wobble continue? That’s what we’re here to sniff out, isn’t it?

Northrop Grumman’s share price has enjoyed a rather spirited ascent this year – approximately 33% upwards, which, when you consider the sheer chaos of existence, is frankly astonishing. Much of this is, naturally, attributable to the ongoing… situations in various parts of the world, which, sadly, tend to encourage increased defense spending. (It’s a vicious cycle, really. Peace is expensive, but war… well, war is just remarkably expensive.) But let’s look beyond the immediate geopolitical turbulence. There are reasons to believe this isn’t just a temporary spike, but a company poised for long-term success.

Wall Street, as ever, succumbed to a fit of speculative enthusiasm. The marijuana sector was briefly deemed not merely profitable, but transformative. The resulting valuations bore no relation to reality, of course. It’s a recurring pattern: a perfectly serviceable idea, inflated into a bubble by the combined forces of greed and gullibility. The business, it turns out, is subject to the same tiresome laws of supply and demand as any other. And, rather inconveniently, competition is fierce.

Liquid Robotics recently entered this latter category.

The company, born of a restless ambition and a stubborn refusal to accept the limitations of the road, had climbed a remarkable distance. Three thousand seven hundred and seventy percent in a single decade – a figure that would have made the alchemists of old weep with envy. Yet, it now lingered eighteen percent below its highest peak, a phantom limb aching for the heights it once knew. The question, then, wasn’t simply whether Tesla could reach a thousand dollars, but whether the very fabric of its destiny allowed for such a resurrection.

The company, a century-old institution built on the combustion of fuel, had long been priced as a reflection of the open road, a cyclical wager on the price of freight. A reasonable, if unremarkable, investment. But the roads, it seems, were no longer the most demanding masters. Now, it was the insatiable appetite of the cloud, the endless calculations of algorithms, the very breath of artificial intelligence, that dictated the terms. The surge in demand for uninterrupted power, for the seamless flow of electrons to these digital cathedrals, had transformed Cummins from a maker of engines into something…else. Something akin to a provider of divine sustenance.

Two transactions are of particular note. He liquidated his entire position in Sandisk, a manufacturer of memory storage, and initiated a new position in Amazon. These are not bold gambles, but calculated shifts in allocation, reflecting a clear understanding of underlying value, or the lack thereof.