USA Rare Earth: Digging for Dragons (and Magnets)

USA Rare Earth (USAR 3.30%), a company currently engaged in the ambitious project of turning dirt into…well, magnets, is at the center of this particular drama. It’s a venture that requires a certain amount of faith, a robust risk tolerance, and possibly a small offering to the geological deities. The U.S. government, in a move that suggests either remarkable foresight or a desperate attempt to avoid future trade disputes, has agreed to contribute up to $1.6 billion. Which, in the grand scheme of things, is roughly the cost of a moderately lavish wizard’s tower.

XRP’s $117M Exodus: A Tragic Saga of Market Despair

Whale Alert, that modern-day scribe of blockchain chronicles, recorded the event on this 17th of February, though whether it was a noble gesture or a heist of greed remains as clear as mud. The sender and receiver, like phantoms in a Tolstoyan novel, remain nameless, yet the market, ever the eager gossip, speculates wildly. Could it be Ripple, that corporate Icarus, finally plummeting from its lofty perch? Or perhaps a mere merchant, trading his digital gold for bread and butter? Only time, that most cruel of judges, shall decide.

Pinterest: A Dip Worth Diving Into?

Apparently, the slowdown isn’t Pinterest’s fault entirely. They’re blaming tariffs. Tariffs! As if Pinterest single-handedly controls global trade policy. It’s a bit rich, isn’t it? They say large retailers, the ones who actually spend money on ads, are cutting back because of these tariffs. Pinterest, it turns out, is more exposed to this particular brand of retail pain than, say, Alphabet or Meta. Those giants deal with a million tiny merchants. Pinterest? More home furnishings. And let’s be honest, nobody’s redecorating with reckless abandon right now. Not unless they’ve won the lottery. Which, let’s face it, is most of us.

Terns & the Speculative Bubble

The filing, dated February 13th, 2026, confirms the acquisition. At quarter’s end, the investment was valued at the aforementioned sum, a figure inflated, no doubt, by the sheer velocity of the stock’s ascent. One is reminded of those Parisian bubbles of the 1920s – briefly dazzling, ultimately unsustainable.

Cogent’s Curious Climb

First Turn Management, you see, decided on February 13th, 2026, that Cogent was worth a closer look. They’ve added these shares to their collection, and the value, naturally, wobbles about like jelly on a plate depending on what the market decides. It’s all terribly unpredictable, you know. They now own 3.35% of Cogent, a rather significant chunk, as of December 31st, 2025.

Extra Space Storage: A Lockbox of Modest Returns

It is, undeniably, one of the larger purveyors of rented cubic footage in the United States. It generates cash with a consistency that would impress even the most meticulous accountant (a breed not known for being easily impressed), and has established a reputation for being reasonably well-managed in a sector that tends to remain stubbornly upright even when the economic landscape resembles a particularly unstable jelly. If one desires stability and a predictable income stream, it ticks a fair number of boxes. Though one might find more excitement watching paint dry.1

DGRO: A Quiet Income Play

Most of these funds chase the streak – the companies that have raised dividends for ten, twenty years, a monument to consistency. Fine. But consistency can be a mask. DGRO does things its own way. It’s not about the longest run; it’s about quality, about building a portfolio that doesn’t buckle when the market gets rough. It’s a $38.37 billion fund, which means someone’s paying attention. Not just gamblers, either.

Bitcoin: The New Czar of a Multipolar World?

Ah, the world! That grand stage where nations pirouette and currencies waltz, only to stumble over their own feet. World leaders, those august figures, now squint at the financial system as if it were a faded portrait, wondering if the frame still holds. Ray Dalio, that sage of markets, declares the post-war order as defunct as a forgotten ballad. And Arch, ever the observant courtier, suggests Bitcoin holders may not be mere dreamers but shrewd players in this new masquerade.

Lilly: A Most Promising Pharmaceutical Venture

Even should a drug triumphantly emerge, its moment in the sun is often fleeting. A patent, nominally lasting twenty years, is largely consumed by the development process itself. The actual period of exclusive benefit, the time when one can reap the rewards of ingenuity, is frequently limited to a mere decade or so. One recalls the case of Pfizer, whose stock experienced a rather giddy ascent around the year 2000, thanks to a certain vaccine. However, as demand waned, so too did the stock’s fortunes, plummeting in 2023 and remaining stubbornly unenthusiastic since. A cautionary tale, to be sure.

Peabody’s Perks & Prudence

According to the SEC filings (because, paperwork. Always paperwork), Gate City shaved off 481,537 shares during the last quarter of 2025. That $14.15 million figure is based on average pricing, which, let’s be real, is a bit of a smoothing exercise. At the end of the quarter, they still held $18.11 million worth of BTU, but the value had dipped by $10.83 million from the previous quarter. Which is… a lot. Though, honestly, in this market, what isn’t a lot?