The talk in Davos, Switzerland – a place where the well-to-do gather to discuss the troubles of everyone else – was all about this “shift to an autonomous future.” Mr. Musk, bless his optimistic heart, described it as an “infinite money glitch.” Sounds like a conjurer’s trick to me, though whether it’ll pull rabbits or ruin folks is yet to be seen. He speaks of billions flowin’ like a spring flood, but a wise man remembers that floods often leave a mess in their wake.
More telling than the past quarter’s performance, however, will be the projections offered. These “guidances,” as they are euphemistically termed, are not forecasts, but carefully constructed narratives designed to sustain the illusion. The whispers emanating from Nvidia’s largest clientele – the digital behemoths who depend upon its silicon arteries – suggest a continuation of the current flow. Should these indications prove accurate, a surge in the share price is inevitable. But let us not be naive. This is not a reward for innovation; it is a consequence of controlled dependency.
This month’s sell-off in the software crowd? Predictable. A puff of wind can topple a house of cards. But the hardware side, the companies actually making something? They’re holding steady. The PHLX Semiconductor Sector index bumped up 14% in ’26, and that’s not an accident. It’s physics. It’s leverage.
The surge in 2025, much like the ephemeral blooms of certain desert flowers, was fueled by unsustainable currents. These currents, reminiscent of the 2021 rally, arose from the fervor of retail investors – a population prone to both ecstatic speculation and sudden retreat. Their predilection for cryptocurrencies, those digital phantoms, proved a particularly volatile foundation. One suspects a deeper pattern: a cyclical attraction to novelty, followed by a predictable disillusionment.
The market, however, remains unconvinced, or perhaps merely impatient. The shares have fallen back from their earlier exuberance, a retreat of some twenty-four percent year to date, and a more substantial decline from the heights they briefly touched last autumn. Such volatility is, of course, the common ailment of youth, and the price now hovers just beneath the eight-dollar mark. The question, then, is whether this represents a prudent moment for investment, or merely a temporary reprieve before a further descent.
Ten years hence, the American fleet boasted a mere two operational icebreakers: the venerable USCGC Polar Star, launched into service in the distant year of 1976, and the somewhat younger USCGC Healy, gracing the waves since 1999. In stark contrast, our Russian counterparts paraded a fleet of forty such vessels, six of which were propelled by the very power of the atom! A disparity that, to a discerning eye, hinted at a certain…lack of foresight.
Oneok, currently yielding just over 5%, offers a dividend that, at first glance, appears generous – exceeding the meager returns of the broader S&P 500. A quarter-century of dividend ‘stability’ is proclaimed, a phrase that, upon closer inspection, reveals less a steadfast commitment to shareholder return and more a carefully managed exercise in maintaining appearances. While not adhering to an annual increment without fail, Oneok has, over the last decade, managed a near doubling of its dividend, a feat achieved while many of its peers were forced to curtail payouts. This is not necessarily a triumph of superior management, but a testament to the power of a carefully circumscribed market, shielded from the full force of competitive pressures.
The current fascination with tokenized real-world assets—a rather clumsy phrase, really—offers a peculiar illustration of this phenomenon. Traditional instruments, rendered as cryptographic tokens, promise efficiency and automation. A neat idea, in theory. But the practical benefits, one suspects, are often lost in the enthusiasm. Ethereum, at present, appears to be attracting a disproportionate share of this nascent activity, while XRP lags behind. The question, of course, is whether this disparity warrants a commitment of capital—a thousand dollars, perhaps—in the hope of capturing some portion of this growth.
And what of its companions, those lesser lights in the crypto firmament? XRP and DOGE, those rambunctious upstarts, have leapt and bounded with the enthusiasm of peasants at a village fête, their gains a testament to the whimsy of the market. Even PEPE and PI, those curious newcomers, have joined the revelry, their ascents as sudden as a summer storm in the Russian steppe.
One seeks, naturally, to identify those companies poised to weather the decades, to deliver a quiet, consistent yield to those patient enough to wait. It is a simple proposition, to be sure, yet fraught with the anxieties of a world that prizes instant gratification. Here, then, are three such names, observed over a period of time, which appear, at least for the present, capable of sustaining their quiet prosperity.