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This particular company, USA Rare Earth, had enjoyed a period of favor, its valuation rising some seventy-five percent over the preceding year. A curious thing, this eagerness to invest in the extraction of earth’s hidden treasures, as if by possessing these rare elements, man could somehow conquer his own limitations. The pronouncements from Washington, of bolstering domestic mineral access, offered a temporary uplift, yet proved, as so often happens, a fragile foundation upon which to build lasting prosperity.

Five years ago, to invest in Nvidia was to touch a future that few could envision. The stock has ascended, a relentless climb nearing 1,300%, a number so vast it loses all meaning, like counting the stars. The S&P 500, a more earthbound creature, has merely padded along, a respectable 78% gain, but a pale imitation of Nvidia’s soaring trajectory. It wasn’t simply outperformance; it was a different order of reality. The company now holds a market capitalization of $4.4 trillion, a sum that feels less like a financial metric and more like a geological formation, a new continent rising from the sea of capital.

Two companies trying to capitalize on this potential future are D-Wave Quantum (QBTS +1.37%) and IonQ (IONQ +0.84%). Both are currently trading at levels that suggest the market is either deeply skeptical or just hasn’t fully processed the implications. Or maybe everyone is still hungover from the AI boom. Either way, they’re worth a look, if you’re the type who enjoys a little pre-apocalyptic investing.

We’ve been poking about in the history of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY +0.79%) in this Voyager Portfolio series – a rather sensible chap, if you don’t mind saying so. It’s made a tidy profit for quite a few, you see. But there’s one thing this particular beast hasn’t managed yet: reaching a trillion dollars in assets. A truly enormous sum, wouldn’t you agree? This is the final chapter, and we’re going to have a good look at whether it’ll manage it, and if it will be first across the line.

IBM is, at its core, a purveyor of solutions, a craftsman of the intangible. It does not manufacture trinkets, but rather the very scaffolding upon which modern enterprise is built. They provide the expertise, the human capital, to erect and maintain the cloud systems that have become the lifeblood of countless organizations. They are the integrators, the mediators between the raw power of technology and the often-chaotic needs of their clientele. And, of course, the mainframes… those monolithic sentinels of data, still guarding the vital organs of commerce.

The reason for this minor excitement? A quarterly report. Not a good quarterly report, mind you. More of a… cautiously optimistic one. Earnings were a touch under what the market scribes expected, but sales managed to stumble over the line. And, crucially, they’re shuffling the deck a bit. Selling off bits and bobs that clearly didn’t fit. Which, let’s be honest, is often the smartest move. It’s like a wizard finally admitting his familiar is actually a very disgruntled ferret.²

SmartRent, born of the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) mechanism in 2021 – a financial contrivance increasingly recognized as a vehicle for transferring wealth from the patient investor to the agile promoter – has languished since its inception. Its current valuation, hovering in the realm of penny stocks – less than two dollars per share – speaks volumes about the market’s assessment of its prospects. This is not a story of innovation rewarded, but of capital misallocation slowly revealing its consequences.

The company announced this morning that it’s selling its eighty percent stake in the Copler gold mine in Turkey to Cengiz Holding A.S. Now, Copler isn’t just any mine. Two years ago, it suffered a rather unfortunate landslide – the kind that doesn’t just inconvenience the landscaping team – and tragically claimed the lives of nine miners. Mining operations were, understandably, suspended.