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But hope, as they say, springs eternal – or at least until the next quarterly report. Novo Nordisk, with a subtlety worthy of a seasoned gambler, has quietly released data from a Phase 2 study of another candidate, UBT251. A curious substance, this – a veritable cocktail of gut hormones designed to trick the body into believing it’s already had a substantial meal. Ingenious, really, if you ignore the ethical implications. And in the world of pharmaceutical innovation, ethics are often a secondary consideration.

I’ve dipped my toe in that particular pool. The rush of a correct prediction? A cheap thrill, like a nickel bag of dopamine. But dopamine doesn’t compound. It doesn’t pay the bills. The question isn’t whether it’s fun, it’s whether it’s smart. And frankly, swapping hard cash for a binary outcome feels a little like burning money to stay warm. It’s a gambler’s paradise, and I’m looking for something a little more… substantial.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. This company, USA Rare Earth, is arguably more strategically important than MP Materials (MP 0.43%). More important! Yet, they aren’t getting the same sweet deals. It’s like being the star quarterback who gets stuck selling popcorn at the game. Unfair, I tell you, unfair!

They call it a car company. I call it a Trojan Horse. A gleaming, electric, self-driving Trojan Horse, stuffed full of algorithms and ambition. The smart money – the really smart money, the kind that doesn’t flinch at a little existential risk – is looking beyond the metal and glass. They’re staring into the abyss of what Tesla is becoming. A distributed AI ecosystem. A goddamn hive mind on wheels. And if they pull it off… well, hold onto your hats. Because the ride is going to be…turbulent.

They’re good at under-promising, apparently. Which, as an investor, is… reassuring, in a bleak sort of way. It means they’re not going to dazzle you with unrealistic expectations and then disappoint you with slightly less unrealistic ones. It’s the corporate equivalent of a polite but firm rejection. You know where you stand. Units of overly optimistic predictions avoided: 1. Hours spent researching “safe” investments: 7.

Last year was… sluggish. A polite way of saying it was a near-death experience for their adjusted EBITDA. A measly 3.2% growth rate? In the pipeline game, that’s like admitting defeat. They were coasting on fumes, no acquisitions, a handful of expansion projects… it was a ghost town. But NOW… now things are different. They’re promising a 10% jump. TEN PERCENT! They’re throwing money at projects – the $2.7 billion Hugh Brinson Pipeline, the $5.6 billion Transwestern expansion… it’s a full-blown infrastructure orgy. And the affiliated MLPs are finally waking up, adding fuel to the fire. Oh, and oil prices are, predictably, doing their thing. Rising. Of course. It’s all starting to feel… unsettlingly positive.

The recent pronouncements regarding a potential defense budget – a sum exceeding a trillion and seven-tenths – whilst subject to the inevitable vagaries of political discourse, do suggest a continued, and indeed, an augmented, commitment to matters of national security. The increased attention to countering unmanned aerial threats is particularly noteworthy, and those companies positioned to address such concerns are, naturally, attracting considerable attention.