We’ve had another up and down week, dominated by daydreams of artificial intelligence riches… and nightmares about the Federal Reserve maybe not cutting interest rates anytime soon. The big picture remains inscrutable, with an economy that continues to hum along well, with low unemployment but inflation that continues to make people nervous, a Federal Government that will never get its fiscal house in order, an AI-driven investment mania that may or may not be a “bubble,” a soaring gold price that keeps hitting new records, geopolitical challenges around the world, and a stock market that is still at a pretty extreme bullish valuation and generally doing well, but runs hot and cold whenever the wind shifts from the Federal Reserve.

Heck, we even had a tiny earthquake here in the northeast today, the first one in my memory that was actually big enough to make Gumshoe Headquarter sway a little bit — the folks in Taiwan wouldn’t have noticed it, of course, but it did make me nervous for a minute.

If you’re looking for reasons to fret about the big picture, you don’t have to look very far.

But, as always, we try to focus on the little picture, the stuff we might be able to understand. And on that front, I’ve got two companies that really caught my eye this week — both stocks that were already in the portfolio, but one is an old friend that I’m saying goodbye to, after a very long time, and the other is a new friend that I’m doubling down on. Let’s start with the bad news…

Unjustified Optimism for Altius?

Altius Minerals (ALS.TO, ATUSF) lost its appeal over denied claims against the government of Alberta for “taking” its mineral royalty rights to several Alberta coal mines, particularly the large Genesee mine. That’s not going to impact the earnings or cash flow for Altius anytime soon, but it does take away one possible upside from any potential government settlement — the government did reimburse some of the miners and power companies for reducing the useful life of their coal plants and mines, but the odds are dwindling that it will reimburse Altius in any way. They might appeal or try other avenues, I suppose, but there’s been no sigh of hope yet… so I assume they’ll eventually accept the loss of those assets and just move on, and stop spending on ...