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For five years, the S&P 500, that behemoth of established fortunes, has held sway. And, of course, the recent delirium over artificial intelligence has disproportionately benefited its most celebrated denizens. But the market, like a capricious lepidopterist, often shifts its affections. And the Russell 2000, after a promising start, appears poised to, shall we say, inconvenience the larger index. Two reasons, delicately interwoven, suggest this is more than mere happenstance.

The truth of it, as near as I can figure, ain’t so much about this one chip itself. It’s more about a trend, a notion that these big cloud fellas – Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet – are gettin’ the itch to build their own contraptions. They’ve got pockets deep enough to do it, and a powerful incentive to avoid payin’ Nvidia’s prices. The question ain’t whether Nvidia can still build a fine machine, but whether they can keep hold of a good share of the spendin’ as these cloud providers start makin’ their own parts.

I’ve been looking at three: XRP, Solana, and Chainlink. They’ve got a chance. A sliver, really. But a chance nonetheless. To outperform the giants. To make someone, somewhere, a little less miserable. That’s the best we can hope for, isn’t it?

To invest is to choose a narrative. Both FBTC and ETHA offer a direct line to a single tale: Bitcoin, the established legend, and Ethereum, the evolving saga. One is a stone, weathered by time, the other, a sapling reaching for the sun. The choice, then, isn’t merely about price, but about which story one believes will unfold with greater resonance.

Ripple, the company tethered to XRP’s fate, has announced a strategic dalliance with Jeel, the innovation arm of Riyad Bank. The stated purpose? To assist Saudi Arabia in its ambitious Vision 2030 program – a scheme so grand in scope it threatens to eclipse the very horizon. The implication, naturally, is that XRP might play a role in upgrading the Kingdom’s financial arteries. A tantalizing prospect, though one must remember that even the most elegantly designed plumbing can still spring a leak.

The trouble, as near as one can gather, stems from a recent earnings report that, while not precisely disastrous, left investors feeling a trifle peckish for better tidings. It appears the company is experiencing a spot of difficulty in actually getting the finished articles off the production line, despite a perfectly healthy appetite from those eager to purchase them. Management, in a most candid admission, has confessed to “acute internal supply constraints,” which, translated from the jargon, means they’re a bit stuck. This, naturally, has caused a bit of a ripple in the pond, with the stock taking a near 20% dip on Friday after the report landed. A most unfortunate state of affairs, but let’s not get the vapours just yet.

Yet, amidst this frenzy, a peculiar stillness surrounds Micron Technology. It is not a company shouting its virtues from the rooftops, nor is it one indulging in the gaudy displays of its more celebrated peers. Rather, it operates with a quiet diligence, a steadfast commitment to the foundational elements of this new technological age. And it is this very quality – this unassuming strength – that warrants a closer examination, a patient unraveling of its potential.

The source of this particular disquiet lies in the announcement of direct U.S. government investment – a considerable sum, nearly $1.6 billion – in USA Rare Earth. This is not merely a financial transaction; it is a statement. A declaration of intent. The nation, it seems, seeks to secure its supply of these critical resources, to disentangle itself from the complex web of global dependencies. And in doing so, it casts a long shadow over those companies – TMC among them – that have relied on the promise of similar patronage. The air, one suspects, is thick with the scent of disappointed expectations.

This begs the question, naturally: is this a rational valuation, or merely the result of a collective enchantment? The Guild of Alchemists and Venture Capitalists, you see, are particularly susceptible to shiny objects, and Palantir, for the moment, is exceedingly shiny.

CVR, in a move that can only be described as bracingly direct (or perhaps just impatient), released these figures well before the market opened. The numbers suggest a net loss attributable to shareholders of somewhere between $105 million and $125 million for the fourth quarter of 2025. This is, naturally, a figure. A rather large one, admittedly, but still fundamentally a statement of numerical value. The throughput, the amount of oil being processed, clocked in at between 210,000 and 220,000 barrels per day (bpd). It’s worth pondering, briefly, that each of those barrels once contained something alive. (Don’t dwell on it.)