Tracking 33 Signals Across 9 of the Pro Portfolio’s Investment Themes
Let’s scan through the headlines for the stories of the week that speak to our Pro Portfolio holdings.
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Nearly half of CFOs surveyed said they’d go with an AI recommendation even if it goes against their judgment. Major hacks hit Japanese companies. The rate of Americans dealing with “unmanageable levels of debt” tops 30%. These are a few of the signals we’ve collected this week that speak to our Pro Portfolio investments. As you read this batch of articles, you’ll walk away with a greater understanding and conviction for the Portfolio’s holdings.
If you’ve come across a signal we should know about, be sure to drop a link in the Comment section below.
Aging Population
Overall senior living occupancy (independent living and assisted living) surpassed 90% nationally in the third quarter, marking the 21st consecutive quarter of occupancy gains across the sector, the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care said Thursday. Nationally, overall occupancy grew 0.6 percentage points to 90.4%. In addition, occupied units increased 0.7% to 644,428, according to the third-quarter NIC MAP market fundamentals data. Read more here
“Assuming the penetration rate remains unchanged, the current supply of senior housing units is woefully inadequate to provide for a rapidly aging population,” Green Street reported. “While home health could be a viable option for a small subsect of the population, and advancements in healthcare could prolong the age of move-ins, a re-acceleration in development will be necessary to meet outsized demand growth through the next decade.” Read more here
Position: State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV), Welltower (WELL)
Artificial Intelligence
Citigroup estimates Meta’s AI assistant Muse could generate more than $27 billion in revenue by 2030 as strong user adoption and growing engagement reinforce the platform’s first-mover advantage in the emerging personal agent market. The brokerage said Muse is increasingly becoming the “front door to the internet,” helping users search, compare and transact online, while Meta expands awareness and positions the product at the center of its broader AI strategy. Read more here
Survey data suggests shoppers have warmed to AI as a research tool, but not as a wallet. According to CI&T’s Retail Tech Report: Agentic Edition, a survey of 1,011 U.S. consumers, 74% have used an AI agent such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini or Perplexity while shopping, and 90% have either tried one or are open to it. But comfort drops sharply once money changes hands: only 27% said they’re comfortable with an AI agent handling their full shopping journey, according to Minkow. Read more here
While artificial intelligence is capturing the imagination of just about every societal group, new research suggests that, in the workplace, usage is more common among executives than among their employees. In a recent survey of 7,675 U.S. adults, including 1,960 executives and business owners and 1,471 employees, 53.2% of the bosses are using generative AI, compared with 37.9% of other workers. The gap is even wider for agentic AI, with executives 2.7 times more likely to use it (17.5% vs. 6.6%), according to the research. Read more here
In a survey conducted by enterprise planning company Board, nearly half (48%) of the CFOs queried said they’d follow an AI recommendation even if it went against their judgment. Finance chiefs were more apt to follow such recommendations compared to their fellow C-Suite counterparts, with just 11% of COOs and 33% of CIOs saying they would do the same under the circumstances. Read more here
Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to accelerate research and development, betting on new modeling tools and automated labs to improve efficiency across their pipelines. Industry forecasts suggest that the use of machine learning to optimize target discovery, design molecules and streamline clinical trial planning could halve early-stage development timelines and costs within the next three to five years. Read more here
Position: Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Axon (AXON), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Palantir (PLTR)
Cash-Strapped Consumer
Medical trend rates are expected to ease across most regions in 2027. North America’s gross medical trend rate is projected to decline slightly to 9.2%, marking the first time in five years that the region’s forecast has come in below the previous year’s projection. Read more here
Amazon spent the week telling shoppers how much they could save. Walmart spent part of it explaining why consumers shouldn’t worry about how their prices are set. The contrast came as Amazon launched its Prime Big Deal Days event on Oct. 6-7, offering millions of discounts across electronics, toys, clothing and household essentials. Walmart countered with its own Deal Days promotion, running Oct. 5-11. Read more here
Rising prices and rampant uncertainty are driving both retailers and their customers to be mindful this holiday season. For some U.S. households, careful planning is vital. In lower-income cohorts, fewer managed to pay all their bills on time in the past 12 months compared to a year ago, according to a survey from The Financial Health Network and the University of Southern California. Moreover, the number dealing with “unmanageable levels of debt” tops 30%, those researchers found. Going into the season this year, 45% of consumers surveyed by cash-rewards app Ibotta describe their household finances as insecure, and over 70% say saving money will be a priority this year. Read more here
Position: Amazon, Costco (COST), TJX Companies (TJX)
Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity
IDC Frontier, a major Japanese cloud and digital infrastructure company, disclosed that its IDCF Cloud service was targeted in a ransomware attack that caused an outage at a data center cluster serving the eastern part of the country. The company says that the attack started on October 7 at 3:40 AM local time, forcing a shutdown of the network and system. Read more here
Advantest Corporation is notifying affected individuals that a ransomware attack earlier this year exposed their personally identifiable data. The Japanese company is a global manufacturer of automated test equipment for the semiconductor industry. Read more here
Over the weekend, Japanese publishing giant Nikkei disclosed that unknown attackers recently breached two employee email accounts and used one to send thousands of phishing emails. In a Sunday statement, the company said an employee’s Google Workspace account was accessed in late July, exposing the personal information of employees and business partners. Read more here
Denmark’s Central Population Register (CPR) is warning of a data breach that exposed the personal information of approximately 8.8 million registered individuals. This includes people who live in the country, individuals who have moved abroad, and also deceased people. The CPR is the country’s national civil registry, containing personal information on residents, including names, addresses, dates of birth, marital status, and unique CPR identification numbers. Read more here
The China-linked ransomware group Warlock targeted a water utility, a telecom provider, a regional government body, and a university by exploiting SharePoint vulnerabilities to gain initial access. Over the past two months, the threat actor appears to have focused on countries speaking Portuguese and Spanish across Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Read more here
Position: Alphabet, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR), Microsoft
Digital Infrastructure
SpaceX struck a deal on Thursday to acquire a nationwide low-band spectrum portfolio, positioning Elon Musk’s satellite venture to mount a direct, orbital challenge to legacy wireless giants across the United States. While Starlink Mobile’s existing global 2 GHz mid-band spectrum will provide high-bandwidth capacity, the new spectrum will enable its signal to pass through obstacles. Read more here
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved SpaceX’s application to deploy 15,000 high-capacity direct-to-device (D2D) satellites. Approval comes around a year after SpaceX filed plans to operate a constellation of D2D satellites, as Elon Musk’s space company pushes to take on the ‘Big 3’ US mobile carriers via Starlink Mobile. Read more here
French AI and supercomputing infrastructure company Sesterce has announced plans for a $10 billion AI data center campus in Jämsä, Finland. Work on the project, which is to be built on the site of the former Kaipola paper mill, will begin this year. Sesterce said the campus will have a capacity of 200MW during its first phase, with an expected increase to 600MW in phase two. The company said it aims to build more than 1GW of capacity in Finland long term. Read more here
Now Scotland is part of a global race to build many more of them – on a massive scale. The explosion in artificial intelligence (AI) over the past few years has seen tech firms scrambling to build new “hyperscale” data centres, including some which would rank among the biggest in the world. Plans are in place to build at least 23 giant AI-powered data centres. Read more here
Position: Applied Materials (AMAT), Arista Networks (ANET), Broadcom (AVGO), Eaton (ETN), Marvell (MRVL), Nvidia (NVDA), Robo Global Robotics and Automation Index ETF (ROBO)
Digital Lifestyle
Walmart has begun rolling out a new option that offers Walmart+ members curbside pickup in as soon as one hour, the company said in a Wednesday (Oct. 7) press release. Walmart launched this Express Pickup option at 500 stores Wednesday and plans to expand it across the United States before Thanksgiving, according to the release. Read more here
Amazon has debuted a line of tablets with its artificial intelligence (AI) system built in.
The company’s Alexa Tablets, announced Thursday (Oct. 8), comes with Amazon’s Alexa+ as well as access to a range of apps via the Google Play Store. “Alexa+ is built into the core of every tablet, delivering help that works with whatever you’re doing, when you need it,” Amazon said in its announcement. Read more here
OpenAI is expanding ads in ChatGPT, and one of the first new formats will show visual ads while you’re generating images. The company says it will begin testing the new ad format later this month in the U.S. with an initial group of advertisers. Read more here
Position: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Netflix (NFLX)
Energy Pain Point
US power consumption will rise to record highs in 2026 and 2027, driven by AI-hungry data centers and electrification, the US Energy Information Administration said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) on Tuesday. The EIA projected that power demand will rise from a record 4,195 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2025 to 4,288 billion kWh in 2026 and 4,356 billion kWh in 2027. Demand is surging largely due to data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Homes and businesses have also been using more electricity and less fossil fuels for heat and transportation. Read more here
U.S. electric utilities expect to spend $1.4 trillion on power lines and other infrastructure-related costs over the next five years, raising concerns about rising power bills ahead for American homes and businesses, according to research released on Tuesday. Read more here
With interconnection timelines stretching and electricity demand surging, developers are increasingly turning to behind-the-meter (BTM) generation to get projects powered faster. A new forecast from Enverus Intelligence Research projects that BTM will serve 25.5 GW of demand from new U.S. industrial facilities through 2030… “About 60% of the expected BTM load is tied to projects we view as high-confidence to come online within the forecast timeline.” Data centers account for 22.5 GW — or 88% — of that demand. That represents about 36% of all U.S. data center capacity additions expected during the five-year period, according to Enverus. Read more here
Google parent Alphabet Inc. agreed to buy nuclear power from Constellation Energy Corp. in a 20-year power-purchase agreement that will drive more than $4.3 billion in investments to upgrade systems at 11 Constellation reactors. The agreement will add 890 megawatts of new reactor capacity and the electricity will start arriving on the grid as soon as 2028… The deal is part of a trend of tech companies investing in nuclear energy to support their operations, with other companies such as Amazon.com Inc., Walmart Inc., and Microsoft Corp. also signing agreements with Constellation and other nuclear power producers. Read more here
Position: Eaton
Homebuilding & Materials
Higher mortgage rates are reshaping the fall housing market, pushing more sellers to reduce prices while fewer buyers move forward with a purchase, according to the recently released Realtor.com® September 2026 Monthly Housing Trends Report. The share of active listings with a price reduction rose to 20.8% in September, up 0.9 percentage points from a year earlier, and the highest September reading on record. Read more here
Mortgage applications decreased 4.2% from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending Oct. 2, 2026. On an unadjusted basis, the index decreased 4% compared with the previous week. Read more here
The Mortgage Credit Availability Index fell 0.2% to a reading of 107.1 in September, indicating slightly tighter lending standards. The Conventional MCAI dropped 0.4%, with jumbo falling 0.3%, while the Government MCAI remained unchanged. Lenders tightened documentation while reducing cash-out refinance and investor loan offerings. Read more here
Safety & Security
Lakeland, Florida is getting police drones that launch before an officer arrives. On October 5 the city commission voted 7-0 for a ten-year, $21,983,139.93 Master Services and Purchasing Agreement with Axon Enterprise that replaces the police department’s 2021 contract and adds Axon Air, the company’s Drone as First Responder package, to a bundle of body cameras, TASER 10 devices, in-car video and Axon’s AI Era Plan software. Read more here
Boulder is deploying two major new technologies to improve public safety: an artificial intelligence system for non-emergency dispatch calls and a new Public Safety Information Center equipped with drone response capabilities. The city plans to soft launch the AI system during the last week of October, with full implementation expected by the end of the year. Once fully implemented, the AI will answer all non-emergency calls, replacing the current phone tree. Read more here
Defense agencies are facing an AI onslaught. With as much as $30 billion slated for fiscal 2027 to purchase and enable next-generation AI hardware, cybersecurity, sensors and related software, defense officials are being bombarded with AI-enabled capabilities from every direction. Read more here
As part of the government’s new plan to quickly secure domestic military assets and infrastructure against cyberattacks, sabotage, power grid failures, and foreign supply chain disruptions, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief on Tuesday initiated the process to set up the new FORTRESS America Program Office. Read more here
Position: Axon, Palantir
The Strategies Behind Our Thematic Models
Aging of the Population – Capturing the demographic wave of the aging population and the changing demands it brings.
Artificial Intelligence – Software, chips, and related companies that facilitate the collection and analysis of large data sets and autonomous generation of solutions given non-machine language prompts.
Cash-Strapped Consumer – Companies poised to benefit as consumers stretch the disposable spending dollars they do have.
Cybersecurity – Companies that focus on protecting against the penetration of digital networks and the theft, ransom, corruption, or destruction of data.
Data Privacy & Digital Identity – Companies providing the tools and services that verify authorized users and safeguard personal data privacy.
Digital Infrastructure & Connectivity – The buildout and upgrading of our Networks, Data Storage Facilities, and Equipment.
Digital Lifestyle – The companies behind our increasingly connected lives.
Digital Payments – This model focuses on companies benefiting from the accelerating structural adoption of digital payments and financial technology (FinTech).
Energy Pain Point – Companies poised to prosper from rising power demand.
EV Transition – Capturing the transition to EVs and related infrastructure from combustion engine vehicles.
Guilty Pleasure – Companies that produce/provide food and drink products that consumers tend to enjoy regardless of the economic environment and potential long-term health hazards associated with excessive consumption.
Homebuilding & Materials – Ranging from homebuilders to key building product companies that serve the housing market, this model looks to capture the rising demand for housing, one that should benefit as the Fed returns monetary policy to more normalized levels.
Luxury Buying Boom – Tapping into aspirational buying and affluent buyers amid rising global wealth.
Rebuilding America – Turning the focused spending on rebuilding US infrastructure into revenue and profits.
Safety & Security – Targeted exposure to companies that provide goods and services primarily to the Defense and security sectors of the economy.
At the time of publication, The Pro Portfolio was long WELL, XLV, GOOGL, AMZN, AXON, META, MSFT, PLTR, COST, TJX, CIBR, A, AVGO, ETN, MRVL, NVDA, ROBO, NFLX.
