We’re Tracking 23 Signals Across 10 Portfolio Investing Strategies
Let’s scan through the headlines for the stories of the week that speak to our Pro Portfolio holdings.
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Microsoft (MSFT) is teaming up with Dubai cops to ramp up AI policing. The U.S. is facing a cost of living “crisis.” And a Japanese taxi operator is hit by cyber attackers. These are among the latest reports we’ve collected that speak to our Pro Portfolio.
If you’ve come across a signal we should know about, be sure to drop a link in the Comment section below.
Aging Population
Roughly 12,000 Americans turn 65 every day. The United States is undergoing a significant demographic shift as the population ages rapidly, with all baby boomers projected to be 65 or older by 2030 and older age groups expected to grow substantially in the years ahead. Read more here
It’s no secret that we don’t have enough housing in the United States. Even Congress agrees: The biggest housing bill in decades recently became law and should help. Supply is outmatched by demand, and the young can’t get into areas with dynamic and expansive economies. We certainly have a housing crisis. But hiding inside it is a retirement crisis — and that is the one the new law doesn’t touch. Read more here
Position: Labcorp (LH); Welltower (WELL)
Artificial Intelligence
Dubai Police, represented by the General Department of Artificial Intelligence, in cooperation with Microsoft, organised a specialised workshop titled ‘Technical Solutions: From Challenge to Implementation’… The workshop is part of Dubai Police’s ongoing efforts to accelerate the adoption of AI technologies and transform operational challenges into innovative technical solutions that support police work and enhance the efficiency of security services. Read more here
Gartner projects that by 2035, agentic AI will drive approximately 30% of all enterprise application software revenue, exceeding $450 billion globally (up from just 2% of software revenue in 2025).12 In essence, nearly one-third of the enterprise software market might be attributable to AI agent capabilities by 2035 – a radical shift in a decade. At that stage, most enterprise software is expected to have AI agents deeply embedded, and new software business models will revolve around autonomous functionality. Read more here
AI adoption among U.S. small businesses has risen to 66%, up 11% from a year ago, even as 70% of owners admit to needing more training to use the technology effectively, according to AI-enabled marketing platform Thryv. Despite a skills gap, small businesses are experiencing concrete benefits from AI usage, according to Thryv’s 2026 AI and Small Business Adoption Survey. Read more here
For the past two years, businesses have been racing to adopt artificial intelligence. This week, that race reached a new milestone when IBM warned investors that customers are redirecting technology budgets away from traditional software purchases and toward AI infrastructure such as servers, GPUs, networking equipment, and data centers. The announcement triggered a sharp selloff in IBM shares and renewed debate about how AI is reshaping enterprise technology spending. The message for business leaders is significant. AI is no longer just another software tool to add to an existing technology stack. Read more here
Position: Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Axon (AXON), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Neostellar Capital (NSLR), Palantir (PLTR)
Cash-Strapped Consumer
America is in a cost-of-living crisis. Inflation hit 4.2% in May, its highest in three years, driven by an energy shock from the war with Iran. Gas prices jumped more than 40% from a year earlier, and grocery items like tomatoes spiked more than 30%. Up and down the income ladder, people are scrambling to stretch their dollar—and even affluent shoppers are gravitating toward retailers that compete on price and value. Read more here
With the U.S. and Iran exchanging strikes once again — and the return of normal traffic flows in the Strait of Hormuz in doubt — traders on prediction market platform Kalshi think gas prices will likely still be elevated for longer now. Speculators think there’s a 75% chance that gas prices on Election Day, Nov. 3, will be above $3.50 per gallon, and place 39% odds that prices will be above $3.75. Before the recent developments in the Middle East, those odds were as low as 37% and 22%, respectively. Read more here
Position: Amazon, Costco (COST), TJX Companies (TJX)
Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity
Japan’s largest taxi operator, Nihon Kotsu, announced that its systems were compromised in a cyberattack, forcing the company to shut down part of its infrastructure. The incident occurred over the weekend, early Saturday morning, and impacted operations, including the company’s taxi dispatch system, which remains offline as of today. Read more here
German discount supermarket chain Lidl notified customers in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands that attackers stole their personal information in a breach at a service provider. Read more here
Cybersecurity agencies from the United States and eight other countries have issued a joint warning that Russian state hackers are targeting vulnerable and poorly configured routers to infiltrate critical infrastructure networks. The joint advisory, co-authored by the NSA, FBI, and CISA, along with 15 other agencies from Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Estonia, Finland, France, and Italy, attributes the attacks to hackers from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Center 16. Read more here
Sophos today published its State of Ransomware 2026 report, covering a survey Sophos conducted with 2,158 IT and cybersecurity leaders across 17 countries who worked in organizations hit by ransomware over the past year. While there are a number of fascinating findings — 56% of ransomware attacks successfully pulled off encryption against victim networks, ransom demands and payments are down — some of the most interesting data involves identity and the ways attackers are getting in. Read more here
Position: Alphabet, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF, Microsoft
Digital Infrastructure
Consumer AI adoption is accelerating and will reach near-universal usage by the mid-2030s. AI and agentic AI are projected to increase consumer-driven network traffic by about 6.6x, representing about 63% additional growth compared to non-AI scenarios—making this the dominant driver of overall internet traffic expansion. AI inference traffic is projected to be 25% of total network traffic by 2035…
Position: Applied Materials (AMAT), Arista Networks (ANET), Broadcom (AVGO), Eaton (ETN), Marvell (MRVL), Neostellar
Digital Lifestyle
Mobile network data traffic growth continued to exceed expectations, rising 22 percent between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026… Mobile data traffic growth is being driven by both rising smartphone subscriptions and increasing average data volume per subscription, fueled primarily by increased video content consumption. At the end of 2025, video traffic accounted for around 75 percent of all mobile data traffic. Read more here
Position: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Neostellar, Netflix (NFLX)
Energy Pain Point
The US could face an electricity generation shortfall of 100 gigawatts between 2026 and 2030, Bank of America said on Wednesday, driven in part by booming chip production and demand as well as US utilities’ inability to meet the moment. Between 2026 and 2030, capacity demand is expected to reach 230 gigawatts or more, per Bank of America analysts led by Andrew Obin. On the utilities side, however, the bank only sees 93 gigawatts of supply coming. Read more here
Global electricity demand growth is set to outstrip GDP growth for the first time, signaling a major boon for metals key to the energy transition. After a decade of stagnant power demand, the economy is undergoing a massive wave of electrification, Bank of America (BAC) metals strategists led by Michael Widmer wrote in a recent note to clients. Electricity demand is now expected to grow significantly faster than GDP for the next two and a half years. Read more here
U.S. electricity demand is hitting record highs as the AI boom and rapid data center expansion end a decade of stagnant power consumption, with new all-time records expected in 2026 and 2027. Read more here
Position: Eaton (ETN)
Homebuilding & Materials
Homeownership has become so unattainable over the past five years that just a fraction of the country’s population lives in areas where buying a property is affordable. Only three states meet the affordability standard for homeownership, according to a recent study from moving services firm HireAHelper. The study defined “affordable” as a mortgage payment that makes up 30 percent or less of a state’s median income. Read more here
Economic headwinds are showing up in this year’s report as a lack of demand, McCue said. Consumer confidence, job growth and household growth have all tumbled. As a result, new housing construction has softened, with single-family construction dipping 7%. Multifamily home construction, while stronger than anticipated, “failed to overcome the sharp decline in 2024,” according to the report. “Uncertainty and slowing job markets also affect residential mobility, another driver of housing demand that is also falling,” the report states. Read more here
Luxury Buying Boom
The global personal luxury goods market has shown signs of recovery in the second quarter despite the ramifications of the war in the Middle East, with demand in the U.S. outpacing expectations, according to a new report from Bain & Company. Read more here
Richemont, the Swiss luxury group behind Cartier, reported €6.33 billion ($7.24 billion) in sales for the three months ended June, comfortably beating analysts’ expectations as affluent shoppers continued spending on high-end jewellery despite an uncertain global economy. Read more here
Position: American Express (AXP)
Safety & Security
The Fairfax County Police Department said its officers are employing technology that utilizes artificial intelligence to better serve Virginia’s most populated county… Officers in four of Fairfax County’s eight districts, are now issued an Axon Body 4 camera and with it comes numerous features, including a real-time translation application that can help officers communicate in 57 different languages. About 35% of households in the county have a primary language other than English and over 180 languages are spoken throughout the county, according to census data… Another new feature of the Axon camera is Draft One, an AI-assisted police report writing system. Draft One takes the footage from the officer worn body camera and generates a rough draft of a police report. Read more here
The Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police has stated that the force must embrace artificial intelligence to manage its growing workload and drastically reduce administrative burdens amid ongoing financial constraints. Read more here
According to Amsterdam-based Sensity AI, one of the biggest reasons law enforcement is adopting AI is the sheer volume of digital evidence investigators must process today. 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, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long AMAT, AMZN, ANET, AVGO, AXON, AXP, BAC, COST, ETN, GOOGL, LH, META, MRVL, MSFT, NFLX, NSLR, PLTR, TJX, and WELL.
