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Micron Technology, Alphabet, and Alibaba. Names that resonate with the clang and clamor of the modern age. They do not offer a king’s ransom in dividends – less than 0.7%, a pittance, really – but they possess a certain… kinetic energy. A restless striving that, for a discerning eye, promises more than mere interest. They are, in essence, not income generators, but engines of speculation, disguised as responsible investments. One might even say they are a little… mischievous.

The third quarter of the previous year yielded a mere $177 million in revenue, a figure scarcely exceeding the previous year’s by a handful of dollars. One pictures a diligent clerk, adding up the figures with a sigh. More telling is the disparity between income and expense. A cost of revenue reaching $297 million, culminating in a net loss of $364 million. A loss, it should be noted, considerably larger than the previous year’s. The company, one gathers, is engaged in a constant, delicate dance with liquidity, a dance it seems determined to continue, despite the music having long faded.

Yet, beneath the surface, a different story unfolded. A subtle stirring in the smaller tributaries of the market. Two exchange-traded funds, nimble craft navigating the same waters, demonstrably outperformed the larger fleet. And this, I suspect, is not a fleeting phenomenon. It’s a hint of a coming realignment, a shift in the very foundations of market weight. The smaller companies, long overshadowed, may finally be gathering the strength to break free.

It was a curious time, for the market, like a restless sea, had begun to churn. The shares of Rivian, once buoyed by a feverish hope, had retreated, sinking back towards the shadowed depths from which they’d briefly emerged. A decline of nearly a third, they said, from the fleeting heights of December. But to see only a loss in these numbers is to misunderstand the nature of things. The market is not a straight line, but a labyrinth of echoes, where fortunes are built and lost in the same breath.

The market, ever fickle, has responded with a vigor that suggests a deeper shift than mere quarterly earnings. An 84% ascent in the past year, followed by a 26% surge in January upon the unveiling of the Panther Lake chip for laptops – these are not the movements of a company merely recovering, but one awakening to a new potential. One observes, with a degree of cautious optimism, that the winds of fortune may indeed be changing for those who have long held faith in Intel’s inherent strengths.

Our attention, naturally, falls upon those who facilitate the flow of these essential, if rather unrefined, commodities. The midstream segment, with its network of pipelines and storage, presents a particularly intriguing tableau. We shall consider three players, each with its own peculiar charm, and, more importantly, its dividend yield.

They say expectations have been ‘walked back.’ A polite phrase for acknowledging the inevitable. It requires little to surprise, they claim. A paltry gain, a minimal loss – these are the standards of our age. As if a few extra kopecks could truly mend a fractured fortune. Let us not mistake a temporary reprieve for genuine recovery. The scent of desperation hangs heavy in the air.

For decades, the great houses of Ford Motor Company (F +0.58%) and General Motors (GM +1.17%) had sent their emissaries to the East, seeking not merely a market, but a reflection of their own fading glory. They envisioned a China mirroring America’s automotive appetite, a land where chrome and horsepower would reign supreme. Instead, they found a patient adversary, a culture that absorbed their ambitions like water into sand, and then, with a quiet grace, began to build something entirely new. They sought to replicate the American dream, but the dream, as it always does, transformed in a foreign land.