In the 1800s, the most powerful men in America decided to build something.
Cornelius Vanderbilt, Leland Stanford, and Andrew Carnegie.
They poured money into iron and steel, stretching across the entire continent.
The project cost roughly $10 billion, in today’s money - about $300 billion.
They built a railroad that forever changed the trajectory of the United States.
Today… four of the most powerful men on the planet have a very similar goal.
Jeff Bezos (AMZN), Mark Zuckerberg (META), Sundar Pichai (GOOG), Satya Nadella (MSFT)...
They’ve decided to build something too… not with iron or steel…
But the digital infrastructure of the next American economy.
And they’ve already committed $700 billion to build it this year alone.
When adjusted for inflation, more than double what the entire railroad system cost… in the first year of a decade-long project.
The last time men this powerful decided to reshape America's infrastructure, it created some of the biggest fortunes in history.
And this time around… the opportunity is even bigger.
Chris Rowe has put together a quick briefing on this new infrastructure project…
And what it means for several small companies at the heart of the project.
Bill Spencer
As Recession Odds Climb, Defensive Sectors Continue to Outperform
Author: Jessica Mitacek. Published: 4/1/2026.
Key Points
- Persistent inflation, market corrections, and the conflict in Iran have severely dampened consumer confidence, with key measures falling to levels associated with an impending recession.
- As growth-focused tech stocks stumble and Main Street budgets tighten, investors are flocking to the consumer staples sector, which is currently outperforming the broader S&P 500 as a hedge against volatility.
- The Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF offers a low-volatility hedge, providing exposure to Dividend Kings with inelastic demand that offer steady income and reliable performance during economic downturns.
- Special Report: Elon’s “Hidden” Company
This year’s exodus from tech and other growth stocks has been well-documented. After the NASDAQ and Dow Jones Industrial Average both entered a correction last week, it’s increasingly evident that Main Street is feeling the pinch as much as Wall Street.
Consumer discretionary is, through the first quarter of 2026, the S&P 500’s second-worst performing sector — a sign that sticky inflation is squeezing household budgets.
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Discover the steps you can take to protect your finances nowOutside the stock market, the Conference Board’s Expectations Index has fallen below the 80-point threshold, a level historically associated with an impending recession. That decline has been exacerbated by the conflict in Iran and rising inflation expectations.
As consumers tighten their purse strings, defensive-minded investors may find opportunity in consumer staples.
As the fourth-best S&P 500 sector this year, consumer staples can act as a hedge against further declines in growth and cyclical stocks as Americans prioritize needs over wants.
For broad exposure, the Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF (NYSEARCA: VDC) provides a basket of large consumer staples companies and a dividend that rewards shareholders who wait out a downturn.
As Consumer Confidence Wanes, Consumer Staples Benefit
From the American Association of Individual Investors’ sentiment survey and CNN’s Fear & Greed Index to the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers, bearishness and insecurity are dominating both investors and consumers.
According to Surveys of Consumers director Joanne Hsu, declines in sentiment over the past month “were seen across age and political party. Consumers with middle and higher incomes and stock wealth, buffeted by both escalating gas prices and volatile financial markets in the wake of the Iran conflict, exhibited particularly large drops in sentiment.”
Hsu added that the near-term economic outlook fell by 14%, and expectations for personal finances over the next year dropped by 10%.
That waning consumer confidence is good news for consumer staples — a corner of the market that was largely overlooked while growth stocks dominated the narrative.
Having finished 2025 second-to-last among sectors with a modest 3.9% gain, consumer staples are back in the spotlight — outperforming the broad S&P 500 for the first time since the 2022 bear market.
Inside VDC: A Staples Basket Built Around Inelastic Demand
VDC caters to investors seeking to insulate portfolios with companies that sell goods with inelastic demand. The fund seeks to track the performance of the MSCI US Investable Market Consumer Staples 25/50 Index, a benchmark of large-, mid-, and small-cap U.S. consumer staples stocks.
Like the index it tracks, VDC is composed of companies less sensitive to economic cycles: manufacturers and distributors of food, beverages, tobacco, nondurable household goods and personal products, plus food and drug retailers, hypermarkets and consumer supercenters.
Among its roughly 109 holdings, market capitalizations range from nearly $985 billion at the top end to just under $105 billion at the low end.
Walmart (NYSE: WMT), Costco (NASDAQ: COST), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) are the top five holdings, collectively accounting for more than 49% of the fund.
The ETF is also a reliable source of income: four of the fund’s top-five holdings are members of the exclusive Dividend Kings. Costco is the exception, though with 22 consecutive years of dividend increases it’s approaching membership in the Dividend Aristocrats.
VDC currently yields 2.15%, or $4.82 per share annually, paid in quarterly distributions.
Year-to-Date Performance Hints at Exactly What Investors Should Expect
So far in 2026, VDC has posted a nearly 6% gain.
While that won’t match the triple-digit returns some semiconductor and AI names have produced, it demonstrates why conservative investors favor the fund: low volatility, steady gains, and relative outperformance during downturns.
For context, the S&P 500 has lost nearly 8% this year.
VDC’s beta of 0.56 indicates it’s roughly half as volatile as the overall market — an appealing profile for investors seeking protection amid uncertainty, global conflict and regulatory pressure.
The Metals Company: Unlocking a Klondike-Quality Mineral Rush
Author: Thomas Hughes. Published: 3/30/2026.
Key Points
- The Metals Company, Inc. is on the verge of licensing approval and commencing commercial operations.
- It is the leader in a rush to unlock a multi-trillion-dollar seafloor opportunity.
- Revenue is expected in 2027 and profits the year after.
- Special Report: Elon’s “Hidden” Company
The Metals Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: TMC) is as futuristic a company as can be, yet it isn’t involved in space or AI. The company aims to trigger a mineral rush over coming decades by harnessing a resource once imagined only by scientists, policymakers, and schoolchildren: deep-sea nodules. Each nodule contains manganese, nickel, cobalt, and copper (all critical for battery production), plus trace amounts of rare earth elements — and there is a lot of it on the seafloor.
The Metals Company targets the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a roughly 4.5 million-square-kilometer region between Hawaii and Mexico. The nodules lie about 4,000 to 5,500 meters below the surface and can be worth up to $1,500 per dry metric tonne.
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Read the free bulletin now and discover the dividend stocks to watchAnalysts estimate a single mining site within the zone could be worth up to $1.7 billion annually, and there may be roughly $19 trillion in minerals overall. The primary obstacles are regulatory approvals, which are in process and progressing.
The Metals Company plans to collect nodules through a partnership with Allseas, a Swiss subsea-construction, pipelaying, and heavy-lifting specialist. Allseas will use a hydraulic collection vehicle that lifts nodules from the seafloor by suction, minimizing silt disturbance and delivering material to a floating processing ship.
The Hidden Gem is a converted drilling ship and the first floating processing plant of its kind. Owned and operated by Allseas, it was commissioned by The Metals Company earlier this decade and has completed initial testing. The ship successfully recovered 3,000 tonnes of nodules in 2022 and is awaiting regulatory approval. NOAA has deemed the company’s application largely in compliance, and executives expect licensing approval will be granted before the end of Q1 2027.
Analysts Like the Outlook, but The Metals Company Is a Speculative Buy
There isn't much analyst coverage, but there is enough to form a baseline read. The four analysts tracked by MarketBeat produce a consensus rating of Hold, with a 50% Buy-side bias and a 25% Sell-side component. Three of the four ratings were issued in January 2026, the fourth in December 2025, so they are relatively current. There is an additional, older Buy rating, but it is more than 120 months old and therefore less relevant.
Other pertinent details include price targets: the consensus implies roughly 165% upside, while the low-end target still suggests more than 100% upside.
Revenue and profitability expectations are a key driver of sentiment. The analyst group projects initial revenue of roughly $50 million in 2027, followed by a more than tenfold increase to over $550 million in 2028.
Earnings are also expected by 2028, as the company — an asset-light operation — could begin generating cash shortly after commercial operations start. Operational risk is viewed as limited because the core technology has been proven; the more significant challenge will be processing the nodules, and the company is making progress on that front.
Near-term catalysts in 2026 include advances in nodule-processing. The company plans to use rotary kiln electric arc furnace (RKEF) technology, either under contract or in its own facility. The Metals Company is working with Japan-based Pacific Metals for testing and verification while also exploring facility construction in Texas.
A feasibility study is underway for a Brownsville, TX facility that could process nodules alongside other feedstocks. RKEF is used globally to process nickel; in this application it would produce a high-grade nickel-copper-cobalt alloy and manganese silicate. Importantly, the process eliminates solid-waste tailings: all inputs are converted into usable materials, including fertilizer-grade ammonium sulfate.
TMC Stock Is Cheap, but It Can Get Cheaper
The Metals Company's 2026 stock price action has been volatile. The market retreated from long-term highs and is on track to test — and potentially break — a key support at the 150-week exponential moving average (EMA). The 150-week EMA is commonly used as an indicator of long-term buy-and-hold sentiment and a pivotal technical level.
If price falls below this level, the stock may struggle to regain traction until a stronger catalyst appears. That said, institutional activity indicates buying on balance — institutions have been increasing exposures as the price declines — which suggests a bottom could form soon.
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