This morning’s jobless claims, a mere 218,000, fell like a dropped coin into the void of expectations. A number so precise it might have been plucked from the Library of Babel itself. The Commerce Department, that keeper of national accounts, then revealed the second-quarter GDP at 3.8%, a figure that glimmers with the sheen of a phoenix rising from two years of ash.
Yet here we find ourselves in 2024, watching this cyclical pauper transform into a prince of the AI ball. Investors, ever the tardy dancers, are only now beginning to waltz to the artificial intelligence symphony. Micron and its brethren craft high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips-the digital champagne fueling AI’s bacchanal-and the stock has doubled this year, leaving luminaries like Nvidia and AMD gasping in its exhaust fumes.
Micron Technology (MU) traffics in the lifeblood of machines-memory chips, those fragile vessels that hold the world’s ephemeral thoughts. The semiconductor realm has always been a carousel of feast and famine, its seasons dictated by the whims of demand. But now, a new alchemy stirs: high-bandwidth memory, vertical 3D stacking like the roots of some subterranean forest, nourishing AI’s insatiable hunger.
The greater fool theory, that ancient waltz of buyers and sellers pirouetting on the edge of reason, had transformed into a carnival where the music never ceased. Meme stocks became totems, and valuation metrics as obsolete as sundials in an age of atomic clocks. Yet even the most enchanted forests have their seasons, and the first frost comes not as a whisper but a shiver through the bones of the unwary. Tariffs loomed like distant thunder, and the jobs reports arrived pale as specters, whispering of storms gathering beyond the horizon.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) has risen 35% this year. Still, its forward P/E ratio sits at 24-a number so low it might as well be printed in invisible ink. This is the company that turns silicon into miracles. Without TSMC, your phone is a paperweight. Your car is a coffin. Your AI dreams? Dust.
The retreat from pandemic-era valuations exposed vulnerabilities. Demand for Pfizer’s vaccines waned as the virus mutated into a manageable threat. Worse, key revenue drivers like Eliquis and Ibrance approach patent expiration, threatening billions in annual losses. The market’s verdict is clear: Pfizer’s past triumphs no longer justify its present price.
Look at Amazon (AMZN) warehouses. More than a million robots already work alongside people to move billions of packages. That’s not science fiction, it’s happening today. (Or as someone once said, “The future is already here-it’s just not evenly distributed.”) Tesla (TSLA) is scaling humanoid production from hundreds toward thousands. Nvidia (NVDA) supplies the Isaac platform that powers both companies, along with nearly every other serious robotics program. Together, these three tech giants give investors distinct paths into the $130 billion robotics wave that’s only just starting to break. (Or as the Hitchhiker’s Guide would put it, “Don’t panic-unless you’re a stock analyst.”)
Yet within this labyrinth, not all corridors are equal. The index’s ascent owes much to the titans of silicon and code-those colossi whose shadows dwarf the rest. Consider this ledger of returns through Sept. 24:
Yet here I stand, a lifelong shareholder, tethered to this enterprise as if bound by the chains of fate. I would purchase its shares anew, were I not already entangled. The company’s plight is not merely a financial matter; it is a story of human endurance, of a system that demands resilience from those who dare to invest in its uncertain future.
Behold the kings of the chip: Nvidia, Broadcom, TSMC-trillion-dollar titans who’ve joined the aristocracy of the algorithm. Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla… oh, how the peasants (investors) cheer! Yet whispers echo in the castle corridors: “Bubble! Bubble!” But fear not, dear reader, for McKinsey’s $7 trillion scroll may yet turn skeptics into believers.