The cause? Amazon’s recent pronouncements, naturally. The company revealed its quarterly earnings – a figure that, while not entirely disastrous, possessed a certain… modesty. But it was the subsequent announcement of a planned capital expenditure of two hundred billion dollars that truly caught the market’s attention. A sum, one might observe, roughly equivalent to the annual GDP of several moderately-sized kingdoms.
The results, whilst not entirely displeasing, did appear to introduce a degree of unease amongst the more discerning investors. Net sales, whilst exhibiting a respectable increase, failed to entirely satisfy the prevailing expectations, and the earnings per share, though improved, fell a trifle short of the anticipated sum. One might venture to suggest that the market, ever fickle, demands not merely progress, but a demonstrable superiority.
Nvidia (NVDA +8.63%). It’s… everywhere. Everyone’s talking about it. AI, apparently. Which I mostly understand as complicated algorithms and a lot of hype. But the numbers are, admittedly, impressive. Revenue up 62% last quarter. Which is good, obviously. But it’s the jump from three years ago – nearly ten times growth! – that’s really rather startling. It’s like watching a small plant suddenly become a redwood. A very profitable redwood.
SPY, as the name suggests, tries to mirror the entire S&P 500 – a bit like capturing the whole of American large-cap stock market in a single fund. MGK, on the other hand, is more selective. It focuses on those truly gigantic companies – the mega-caps – and specifically those that are growing at a rather brisk pace. This means a heavier emphasis on technology, which, let’s be honest, has been doing rather well for itself lately. The question isn’t so much which one is ‘better’, but which one better suits your particular temperament and investment goals.
These are not merely ‘value traps’ as the analysts casually label them – a term that sanitizes the reality of misallocation, of capital eroded by mismanagement and short-sightedness. They are monuments to the prevailing system, where the promise of immediate return often eclipses the imperative of sustainable growth. We observe three contenders – Perrigo, Pfizer, and Embecta – each offering a dividend yield that, upon closer inspection, reveals a story of precariousness and, perhaps, a glimmer of obscured potential.
The source of the jitters? Two things, really. First, Alphabet (GOOG 2.54/2.59) unveiled ‘Project Genie,’ which sounds suspiciously like something out of a children’s book, but is actually an AI tool allowing users to conjure up virtual worlds. It’s a bit like Lego, only instead of plastic bricks, you’re using algorithms and, presumably, a lot of processing power. And second, a start-up called CloudX has entered the fray, promising to streamline mobile ad auctions using, you guessed it, AI. It’s all getting a bit science-fictiony, isn’t it?
A cascade of liquidations, a frantic shedding of holdings at critical junctures. The deer, startled by a sudden shadow, remains frozen. But what is the point of flight when the forest itself is in motion? To act, to buy or sell with fervor, is to mistake the tremor for the earthquake. The wisest course, it seems, is to simply…observe. To allow the dust to settle, to watch the patterns emerge from the chaos.
Relay Therapeutics, in essence, is an attempt to impose order on chaos, to predict and control the unpredictable. It employs computational modeling and structure-based drug design, a form of algorithmic divination. It seeks to address unmet needs, a phrase that implies a fundamental inadequacy in the current system.
Many, rather cleverly, choose the iShares Silver Trust (SLV +4.78%) as a way to own silver without the bother of digging a hole in the garden and burying it. It’s a sort of magical box that follows the price of silver, and you can buy and sell bits of it with a few clicks. Very convenient, if you ask me.
By 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time, Dave’s stock price had ascended by a respectable 16% or so. A healthy bounce, one might say, in a market where bouncing often involves hoping for a slightly less catastrophic fall.