US Stocks prediction

Here are three. Not guarantees, mind you. Just… possibilities. Let’s have a look, shall we?

The source of this little upswing? Well, it appears to be tied to Plug Power’s recent earnings report. Now, earnings reports are a bit like archaeological digs – you sift through a lot of dirt to find a few interesting bits and pieces. In this case, the bits and pieces were… not terrible. They managed to surpass $700 million in revenue for the year – a 12.9% increase, which is respectable, if not exactly earth-shattering. They even achieved positive gross margins in the fourth quarter, which, for a company that’s been rather accustomed to posting losses, is a bit like a cat learning to fetch. Unexpected, and mildly impressive.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a name that evokes images of gleaming gears and determined men in bowler hats, has also bravely breached the 50,000 mark. And the Nasdaq Composite, a collection of companies that mostly involve blinking lights and complex algorithms, briefly touched 24,000. It’s all becoming rather…uncomfortable. Investors are, it seems, becoming desensitized to good news. (Which, as any seasoned observer of human nature will tell you, is a profoundly dangerous state of affairs.)

Forget the vaporware peddlers, the pre-revenue promises. We need to look at the behemoths, the ones with the balance sheets to withstand a decade of negative returns. The ones who can absorb the losses and still pay the bills. Because let’s face it, this quantum leap isn’t going to be a sprint. It’s a goddamn marathon, and most of these startups won’t even make it to the first water station.

The Coca-Cola Company. A name that evokes, for some, the very essence of American excess. For Berkshire, it has proven a remarkably durable asset. The initial investment, dating back to the mid-1990s, was, one gathers, predicated on a shrewd understanding of branding and the human appetite for sweetened water. The company, even then, possessed a mastery of lifestyle marketing, a skill now sadly diluted amongst a thousand competing distractions. More prosaically, it paid a dividend. And continues to do so, a practice now stretching to sixty-four consecutive years. A reassuring consistency in these turbulent times.

TMC, as they call it, a name that feels less like a company and more like a forgotten god, has staked its claim upon a seabed teeming with polymetallic nodules – dark, potato-shaped stones holding the weight of future technologies, and the ghosts of geological ages. For years, this potential wealth lay trapped in a regulatory limbo, a bureaucratic purgatory overseen by the International Seabed Authority. They demanded a rulebook, a set of commandments for this new frontier of extraction, but the pages remained stubbornly blank. TMC, impatient with the glacial pace of international consensus, turned its gaze towards the United States, a nation accustomed to forging its own path, even if it meant circumventing the established order.

Currently, fifty-seven bear this title, each a testament to endurance. American States Water, a utility, leads the procession, having offered this fruit for seventy-one years. It is a slow unfolding, this accumulation of trust, like the patient growth of a tree. To invest in these is not simply to seek return, but to participate in a narrative of sustained life.

It is, of course, perfectly possible to devote oneself to the meticulous analysis of company accounts and the frantic monitoring of market fluctuations. Some even find it diverting. But for those of us who prefer to retain a semblance of civilized existence, a rather more passive approach can prove surprisingly effective. A portfolio, diligently ignored, can accumulate a respectable fortune. It is a truth rarely advertised by the purveyors of financial ‘solutions.’

Google’s parent company, Alphabet (GOOG +1.00%) (GOOGL +1.11%), has been a favorite amongst these high rollers. Griffin, that shrewd operator, increased his stake by nigh on 40%, which is akin to addin’ a good-sized barn to an already substantial farm. Druckenmiller, bless his heart, went even further, boostin’ his position by a whopping 276.7%! That’s like findin’ a whole new gold mine in the backyard. Tepper, not to be left out, added another 28.9% to his holdings.

And so, for those seeking a foothold in this peculiar game, a vessel to navigate the currents of American capital, allow me to present a suggestion. Not a recommendation, mind you. One does not recommend fate. Merely… observe its mechanisms.