usdaed

The contagion, predictably, spread. Those so-called “Magnificent Seven” – a rather bombastic moniker, don’t you think? – have lost, on average, a disheartening 10% since late December. A mere blink, perhaps, in the grand scheme of decades, but a perceptible tremor for those fixated on quarterly pronouncements. It’s a curious phenomenon, this tendency to punish success, to view prolonged prosperity with a jaundiced eye. As a dividend hunter, I find it…stimulating. Opportunities, like pale butterflies, often emerge from such fleeting periods of market melancholy.

The stock presently trades at $17.40, a considerable fall from November’s high of $32.73. The question, therefore, is not simply whether SoFi can regain lost ground, but whether the underlying conditions justify such a recovery.

With that initial vision largely realized, Tesla’s gaze drifted towards the horizon, towards the spectral realm of robotics, the pursuit of artificial sentience, and the dream of driverless locomotion. Many among its investors believed the company would sever ties with the limitations of mere automobile manufacturing, leaving the established order trailing in its wake. But now, a strangely familiar specter has materialized, joining Tesla in this new, fraught endeavor – a rival not from the realm of nascent technology firms, but from the very lineage of those it sought to displace.

Nike, the old guard. It used to be the one everyone wanted to be seen with. Now, it’s down 69% from its peak. Sixty-nine percent! It’s practically giving itself away. And Lululemon, the athleisure darling, isn’t doing much better. Also down 69%. It feels… ominous. Like a synchronized slump. Is it a buying opportunity, or a sign to just… hide under the duvet?

It is within Amazon Web Services – AWS – that the true engine of this empire resides. A segment generating not merely revenue, but a disproportionate share of profit, and one now under the stewardship of Andy Jassy, who appears determined to expand its dominion still further. A man, one might observe, not given to understatement.

Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta—them giants are plannin’ to spend nigh onto six hundred billion dollars just next year, and a goodly portion of it’s goin’ toward these chips. It’s a spendin’ spree, I tell ya, a regular orgy of investment. And wouldn’t you know it, this ASML is right in the thick of it, holdin’ the purse strings, so to speak.

Greece, bless their fiscally-challenged hearts, is about to drop a cool 4.6 billion euros on military upgrades. Multiple attacks from Iranian drones? Rough. But hey, silver linings, right? At least a billion of that is earmarked for Lockheed to give 38 perfectly good F-16s a makeover. It’s like giving your sensible sedan a spoiler and calling it a Viper. Which, incidentally, is what they’re calling these upgraded F-16s. F-16V. Very edgy.

Altcoins. They’re the financial equivalent of those “As Seen on TV” gadgets that promise to solve problems you didn’t know you had. Bitcoin, at least, has a certain… heft. It’s the grumpy uncle at the family reunion. These others? They’re more like the hyperactive cousins who insist they’ve invented a self-folding laundry system. Still, ignoring them entirely feels… irresponsible. There’s a peculiar energy to the market right now, a sort of desperate optimism. And occasionally, something interesting bubbles to the surface. Two coins, Solana and Cardano, have been accruing a little more than just hype. Not enough to fund my own retirement, mind you, but enough to warrant a slightly closer look.

There are no guarantees in the stock market, a truth frequently obscured by enthusiastic promoters. VYM, at least, is invested in businesses that have demonstrated a degree of longevity. This is not necessarily a virtue, merely a sign that they have successfully navigated the currents of commerce for a sufficient period. Whether this continues is, of course, the central question.