We’re Tracking 27 Portfolio Signals Across Our Investing Themes
Let’s scan through the headlines for the stories of the week that speak to our Pro Portfolio holdings.
You've reached your free article limit
You've read 0 of 1 free Pro articles.
More U.S. credit card users suffer from declining financial health. The top four data center names have committed nearly $2.4 trillion in spending in the coming year, giving an indication of the massive expected build out. And after years of flat demand, the U.S. power grid is now seeing massive spikes in demand. This is just a sampling of the more than two dozen “signals” we’ve spotted this past week that speak to our Pro Portfolio investments.
We hope that as you read this batch of article excerpts, 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
The senior housing industry is entering one of the most significant demographic shifts in history, but investors and operators who assume demand alone guarantees success may be overlooking what matters most. In a recent episode of On the Market with host Dave Meyer, senior living expert Jerry Vinci explained why the industry’s biggest opportunity isn’t simply an aging population—it’s the growing gap between demand, supply, and operational excellence. Read more here
Position: State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV), Welltower (WELL)
Artificial Intelligence
Restaurant-goers can now book Resy restaurant reservations directly in ChatGPT. Resy today announced the launch of Resy reservation availability and booking in ChatGPT, which allows ChatGPT’s users to discover and book U.S. Resy restaurants without ever leaving ChatGPT. This launch introduces Resy restaurants to ChatGPT users at the moment they’re deciding where to eat, combining conversational discovery with easy booking in one place. Read more here
Intuit has introduced artificial intelligence (AI)-centered updates to its middle market financial platforms, QuickBooks Online Advanced and Intuit Enterprise Suite… Among the new additions is Intuit Intelligence Chat, a conversational interface that lets users query business data and trigger workflows using plain language. For QuickBooks Online Advanced, Intuit is now including bill pay, payments and AI-driven bookkeeping in the core subscription. This includes a continuous reconciliation service called “Books Upkeep” that automates transaction resolution. Read more here
Google’s artificial intelligence app, the Gemini app, now has more than 1 billion monthly users and has become the fastest-growing product in the company’s history, Google said in a Tuesday (Aug. 11) blog post. That figure is up from the 650 million monthly active users Google reported in October 2025. Read more here
E.W. Scripps has positioned artificial intelligence as a practical assistant across its local television newsrooms, focusing on routine tasks that free journalists to concentrate on original reporting and community stories. Read more here
Position: Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Axon (AXON), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Neostellar Capital (NSLR), Palantir (PLTR)
Cash-Strapped Consumer
Financial health among U.S. credit card customers is deteriorating, with the share of customers classified as financially unhealthy1 rising to 60% from 56% a year ago, according to the JD Power 2026 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study,SM released today. Read more here
Consumers are getting some inflation relief, at least in terms of the slowdown in price increases. They’re just not necessarily getting it on the bills that determine how much money is left at the end of the month… The fact that essential expenditures still are creeping higher in terms of costs seems set to burden households a bit more. PYMNTS Intelligence found that 53% of consumers were struggling with daily living expenses as of April, a share that had barely moved across three surveys since October. More than one-third of U.S. adults (34%) had reduced both spending and savings, putting them in the report’s “reactive” consumer group. Read more here
A rare decline in overall U.S. household debt has masked the fact that consumers are still adding balances to the forms of credit most closely tied to everyday spending and purchases. Total household debt slipped by $13 billion in the second quarter to $18.8 trillion, according to the latest Federal Reserve Bank of New York Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, which was released Tuesday (Aug. 11). It was only the second quarterly decline in a decade, after the $34 billion drop in the second quarter of 2020. But the decline was driven overwhelmingly by mortgages, while credit card and auto balances continued to rise. Read more here
“Small business optimism rose again in July, with a significant increase in owners expecting to hire, accompanied by an improvement in plans to make capital expenditures,” NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said in a Tuesday news release. “Although uncertainty is currently elevated, Main Street anticipates that business conditions will continue to improve.” Read more here
Position: Amazon, Costco (COST), TJX Companies (TJX)
Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity
Attempts to exploit a critical vulnerability (CVE-2026-71362) in Adobe’s Commerce and Magento e-commerce platforms have been detected, potentially allowing attackers to hijack customer accounts. Read more here
The Jewelbug hacker group has been carrying out espionage operations targeting governments and militaries while also engaging in cryptocurrency fraud. Although the threat actor has targeted government agencies and organizations in critical sectors, including defense, telecommunications, education, and aviation, its cryptocurrency-related activity suggests that they may also operate as a hack-for-hire group that seeks to profit from cybercrime. Read more here
During the first half of the year, the cybersecurity industry recorded over 215 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) collectively worth over a hundred billion dollars. But the more consequential signal was buried beneath the transaction count. Artificial intelligence (AI) security, machine identity, industrial infrastructure, browser protection, behavioral fraud detection and automated remediation are increasingly appearing on buyers’ shopping lists. Read more here
Ransomware attacks jumped nearly 20 percent in July, with UK firm Comparitech counting 799 incidents, up from 668 in June. Of those, 51 had been confirmed by victims. The tally makes July the second-busiest month of the year for ransomware, behind March, albeit just barely, when the firm recorded 805 attacks… Read more here
Position: Alphabet, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR), Microsoft
Digital Infrastructure
The four largest players in the data center race have committed nearly $2.4 trillion in spending over the coming years, pointing to massive ongoing investment in AI infrastructure. Read more here
Neoclouds are AI-focused cloud providers that secure large-scale NVIDIA GPUs and lease computational power to big tech, AI developers, and general enterprises. Since revenue is recognized only when actual computing capacity is provided to customers, their performance serves as a key indicator of real-time AI computation demand beyond announced investment plans. A leading neocloud company, CoreWeave, reported $2.575 billion in revenue for the second quarter of this year, a 112% year-on-year increase. More striking than the revenue growth was its backlog of orders, which stood at $104.2 billion as of the end of Q2—40 times its quarterly revenue. In Q3 alone, it secured contracts worth over $25 billion. Read more here
Cloud continued to be a notable driver of Cisco’s success, with CEO Chuck Robbins noting product orders from service providers and cloud customers were up 95%. AI infrastructure orders from four of the top hyperscalers increased “in the triple digits,” he added. Read more here
Position: Applied Materials (AMAT), Arista Networks (ANET), Broadcom (AVGO), Eaton (ETN), Marvell (MRVL), Neostellar, Nvidia (NVDA), Robo Global Robotics and Automation Index ETF (ROBO)
Digital Lifestyle
The Walt Disney Company announced during its fiscal third-quarter 2026 earnings investor call on August 5 that additional college sports content is heading to Disney+ this fall, as first reported by Jacob Feldman. The streaming service will continue to carry live simulcasts of ESPN’s long-running College GameDay pregame show while expanding to include more simulcasts of college football games themselves… The move forms part of a broader effort to position ESPN as a central destination for sports fans across Disney’s platforms and to increase engagement on Disney+. Read more here
As more Americans cut the cord and watch video wherever they are, smartphones have become one of the industry’s most important battlegrounds. A new report from Counterpoint Research suggests that shift is only accelerating, with premium smartphones reaching a record 29% share of the global smartphone market during the first half of 2026. Apple and Samsung accounted for 84% of those premium devices, giving the two companies an outsized influence over the hardware millions of people use to stream video, follow live sports, and access entertainment every day. Read more here
Tech giants are spending tons of R&D money on building new smart glasses that fill various categories. However, based on the results from last week’s poll, all of them are solutions looking for a problem. The outcome couldn’t be more clear – the vast majority of voters are not using smart glasses. Read more here
Position: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Neostellar, Netflix (NFLX)
Digital Payments
Debit cards are a daily financial control panel for many Generation Z consumers, which gives banks a new way to compete for loyalty… Gen Z wants direct access to its money along with speed, visibility and control throughout the payment experience. For issuers, that creates an opportunity to make debit more useful through a series of practical improvements rather than a wholesale redesign. Read more here
Position: American Express
Energy Pain Point
The U.S. domestic power grid is currently experiencing unprecedented pressure. Decades of relatively flat energy demand curves did little to incentivize new investments in and upgrades to aging grid technology. But now a booming data center and artificial intelligence (AI) industry, combined with increased nationwide electrification and industrial consumption, is causing demand to spike. Read more here
U.S. power consumption, which hit its second straight annual record high in 2025, will rise further in 2026 and 2027, driven by AI-hungry data centers and electrification, the 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 4,268 billion kWh in 2026 and 4,391 billion kWh in 2027. Read more here
Position: Eaton
Homebuilding & Materials
While North American softwood lumber consumption has declined in 2026, prices have remained surprisingly resilient due to constrained supply, reduced production, and persistent structural demand for housing despite ongoing affordability challenges. Read more here
Position: Builders FirstSource (BLDR)
Luxury Buying Boom
As the luxury market emerges from a period of slower growth, consumers in the United States and China will play an outsized role in determining which brands emerge as leaders. These two countries represent the industry’s most significant concentration of luxury demand: The United States remains the world’s largest luxury market by sales, while China is expected to be among its fastest-growing through 2030. Overall, the global luxury market is projected to reach $700 billion by the end of the decade, growing 4 to 6 percent annually. Read more here
Position: American Express (AXP)
Safety & Security
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is dumping Flock Safety after Sheriff Darren Weekly said he lost trust in the surveillance technology company. State of play: County commissioners last week approved a nearly $23 million, 10-year contract with Axon, which makes Tasers, body cameras, drones and license plate readers. Read more here
Strengthening California’s defenses against emerging artificial intelligence-enabled cyber threats, Governor Gavin Newsom today announced a first-in-the-nation initiative to protect state assets and critical infrastructure while advancing responsible AI innovation. Read more here
The U.S. Air Force is placing artificial intelligence on the front lines of battle management to aid commanders in making faster and more accurate decisions. The service has been experimenting with AI-enabled battle management through its Decision Advantage Sprint for Human-Machine Teaming, or DASH, a series of wargames held in 2025. 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 XLV, WELL, GOOGL, AMZN, AXON, META, MSFT, NSLR, PLTR, COST, TJX, CIBR, AMAT, ANET, AVGO, ETN, MRVL, NDVA, ROBO, NFLX, BLDR, AXP.
