We’re Tracking 28 Signals Across 10 of the Portfolio’s Strategies
Let’s scan through the headlines for the stories of the week that speak to our Pro Portfolio holdings.
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With the graying of America, healthcare providers are stressed more than ever with caring for older adults with multiple chronic conditions. Everything is bigger in Texas, including AI usage among businesses. TikTok is coming to Disney+ (DIS). And Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOGL), and Microsoft (MSFT) are pour hundreds of billions of dollars into expanding data center capacity.
These are just some of the more than 25 individual Portfolio “signals” we’ve gathered this week, we’re going to keep the introduction short and sweet this time around. Needless to say, 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
Ambulatory care is expected to become the “new center of gravity” for health systems over the next decade, with outpatient volumes projected to grow 20% by 2036, according to the 2026 Impact of Change forecast from Vizient. Read more here
Although a longer life expectancy is one of the biggest achievements of modern medicine, the health-care system now faces an unexpected challenge. No matter how advanced the American health-care system has become, it wasn’t originally designed to tackle millions of older adults with multiple chronic diseases. Read more here
Position: State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV), Welltower (WELL)
Artificial Intelligence
More than half of Texas businesses are already using artificial intelligence, according to a new report that argues the technology is rapidly becoming a part of everyday business operations across the state. The report was released Tuesday by Build American AI, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit advocacy organization that promotes U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence. Citing the Dallas Federal Reserve‘s Texas Business Outlook Survey, the report says 59.1% of surveyed Texas businesses reported using either traditional or generative AI in May 2025, up from 38.3% just a year earlier. Read more here
[Pinterest]Revenue topped $1 billion for the fourth straight quarter, and monthly active users hit a record high, the 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit user growth. The company points to its AI conversational assistant, expanded to most U.S. users in July, as the mechanism behind the acceleration. Read more here
Airbnb raised its forecast for the year, citing an expansion in global demand as it uses artificial intelligence to improve its platform. The short-term-rental company said Thursday it now expects revenue to increase by at least a mid-teens rate this year, up from its prior projection for growth in the low- to mid-teens. Read more here
In the third-quarter earnings, Disney said it views emerging technologies such as AI as “a significant opportunity for our company to drive returns”. The company is using AI to design, build and operate its parks and experiences, including AI-powered digital twins and simulation tools to design and test new attractions, which are being leveraged for the new Abu Dhabi park. Disney is using AI to design, build and operate its parks and experiences, including the new Abu Dhabi park. Disney has also made its J.A.R.V.I.S. AI tool available to more than 2,000 Imagineers, and is applying AI to simplify the booking and planning experience for guests. Read more here
Real estate brokerages are rapidly embracing artificial intelligence (AI), with just 2% reporting no plans to adopt AI in 2026, according to three-year analysis from the Delta Media Group Real Estate AI & Leadership Survey. The report found that resistance to AI continues to shrink across the industry, while the adoption gap between mid-sized brokerages and the largest firms has disappeared… Brokerage leaders are increasingly favoring AI capabilities delivered through unified technology platforms rather than standalone tools, researchers added. Read more here
Position: Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Axon (AXON), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Neostellar Capital (NSLR), Palantir (PLTR)
Cash-Strapped Consumer
Having trouble figuring out this economy? So is McDonald’s. The fast-food giant reported its slowest U.S. sales growth in over a year as its value push fell flat with customers who continue to struggle with higher prices. Overall U.S. customer count declined. Company executives said it provided too many value offers, including a $3-and-under menu and $5 bundled meal deals, that ended up muddling the chain’s message to people who are as hungry for bargains as they are for convenient food. Read more here
Consumer sentiment sank to a record low in May 2026, yet spending kept climbing through the spring, according to PYMNTS Intelligence’s Consumer Expectations Index. The index separates how people feel about the broader economy from whether their own household finances give them room to act on those feelings, and those two measures have been moving in opposite directions… Consumers have become habitual price-watchers rather than impulse shoppers. Some 72% of US adults say they track price trends over time, especially on big-ticket items, before deciding to buy, according to a survey from CivicScience. That vigilance has curdled into skepticism about the promotions meant to reward it: Only 23% of consumers believe items marked “on sale” are actually discounted most of the time, per CivicScience. Read more here
Position: Amazon, Costco (COST), TJX Companies (TJX)
Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity
OpenAI has discovered other instances in which autonomous agents have escaped containment as the company expands its investigation of the hacking incident at tech firm Hugging Face that drew global attention this month, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday. Read more here
Facebook owner Meta has become the latest tech firm to say one of its AI models was able to connect to the internet and hack into another organisation’s systems, during testing. The incident, which Meta says occurred during an evaluation by an independent company, is the fourth recent incident of its kind disclosed by AI companies. Read more here
Microsoft has linked a global campaign targeting hospitality Wi-Fi networks to the Russian threat actor Midnight Blizzard, also known as APT29. The attackers manipulate DNS and HTTP traffic on networks served by captive portal equipment, allowing them to intercept user connections to hotel and conference center Wi-Fi networks. Read more here
A cyberattack on the U.K.’s Police National Legal Database (PNLD) has compromised contact data of more than 100,000 police officers and other criminal justice professionals. Read more here
Hackers are shrinking the time between a software flaw becoming public and a real attack to mere hours, and artificial intelligence is helping them move even faster, according to CrowdStrike’s new 2026 Threat Hunting Report. The cybersecurity company said AI has become both a target and a weapon for attackers. Read more here
Position: Alphabet, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR), Microsoft
Digital Infrastructure
Cloud giants Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are committing nearly $600 billion in capital expenditure to expand data center capacity, driven by surging artificial intelligence (AI) demand. Despite these massive investments, hyperscalers report being supply-constrained, signaling a sustained boom in digital infrastructure and component shortages. Read more here
Data centers will continue their momentum in the US commercial real estate market, despite restrained construction activity in most other sectors, a new report from CBRE has said. According to the commercial real estate services firm’s 2026 US Real Estate Outlook Midyear Review report, the US market should hold its ground and in some cases improve in the second half of the year, despite tremors from conflicts in the Middle East driving high energy prices… The real estate services firm also said under-construction data centers will generate “an even higher preleasing rate,” predicting that they would reach 80 percent this year, up from its previous prediction of 75 percent, and well above historical ranges of 40 to 50 percent. Read more here
AMD has reached a definitive agreement to acquire the Toronto-based company, according to a statement Thursday. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Taalas’ technology is used in chips that handle inference — the stage of AI where already-trained models are fielding queries from users and providing responses. 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
TikTok videos will be coming to Disney+. The tech giant and the entertainment giant have inked what they are calling a “first-of-its-kind” content sharing deal, which will allow TikTok videos from Disney fans to live on both of their streaming platforms. The deal bears a striking similarity to last year’s short-lived announcement with OpenAI to fold videos from Sora into Disney+… but without the whole AI-generated angle. Creators who opt-in to the program will gain access to Disney assets (think photos and videos featuring Disney characters and IP). A “thoughtfully curated” selection of videos will live on both TikTok and in Verts on Disney+. Read more here
With Apple Inc. gearing up for its biggest product launch of the year, the company is opening a lottery for US retail employees who want to help staff the in-person unveiling… The launch event will take place during the first half of September, the company told staff… Read more here
WHOOP has announced a partnership with Natural Cycles to integrate its wearable technology with the FDA-cleared Natural Cycles fertility app, providing eligible users with personalised fertility insights and access to hormone-free birth control supported by biometric data collected through WHOOP devices. Read more here
Position: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Neostellar, Netflix (NFLX)
Energy Pain Point
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
The investment pipeline continues to expand. The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) projects investor-owned electric companies will invest approximately $238.8 billion in 2026, following a record $204.1 billion in 2025. Through 2030, EEI expects utilities to invest roughly $1.4 trillion, reflecting higher forecasts for transmission, distribution, generation, resilience, and customer interconnections as electricity demand accelerates. Much of that spending is difficult to defer. Aging equipment needs replacing. Transmission networks need to expand just to connect the large industrial customers already lined up, and systems need hardening against more severe storms and wildfires on top of that. Data centers and manufacturers keep adding new demand while all of this is underway. Read more here
Position: Eaton
Homebuilding & Materials
U.S. luxury home prices have risen about 5%. Meanwhile, the rest of the housing market is stalling for the average buyer, with a 4 million housing supply deficit. This reveals a struggle for new builds between a growingly wealthy group of home buyers and your average purchaser, as standard multi- and single-family homes rapidly become out of reach. The competition for workers and adequate supplies to build new homes isn’t just coming from housing demands alone. AI data center construction is drawing from the same finite pool of skilled labor and basic but vital materials like steel, iron and lumber. Read more here
Housing demand still showed positive year-over-year growth last week, despite the hawkish Fed, escalation of the Iran conflict, rising mortgage rates and the 10-year yield hitting yearly highs. We had year-over-year growth in our weekly pending sales, total pending sales and purchase apps. Read more here
Position: Builders FirstSource (BLDR)
Luxury Buying Boom
For Chinese consumers seeking luxury, prestige skincare is trumping designer bags as a prolonged property downturn and weaker confidence make price tags ever more decisive, even for premium goods. Analysts say recent earnings show China’s aspirational middle-class spending is shifting away from entry-level luxury goods toward categories like prestige beauty — luxury skincare, make-up and perfume priced significantly above mass-market cosmetics. Read more here
LVMH, the world’s leading luxury group, reported on July 27 a 2% increase in first-half revenue on a comparable basis, with growth accelerating in the second quarter. Hermès delivered a stronger performance, posting sales growth of more than 6% at constant exchange rates. Like its competitor, the maker of the iconic Birkin bag saw momentum strengthen in the second quarter. Kering, which has struggled in recent years as its flagship brand Gucci lost some of its appeal, also returned to slight growth in the second quarter — its first positive quarterly performance in two years. Read more here
Position: American Express (AXP)
Safety & Security
For law enforcement agencies across the country, drones are becoming an increasingly important public safety tool. They help locate missing persons, support search-and-rescue operations, document crime and crash scenes, improve situational awareness during critical incidents, and assist during natural disasters and other emergencies. For small, rural and tribal agencies, the challenge is no longer whether drones have value. Read more here
The Santa Maria Police Department is planning to adopt an AI-dispatch system for its non-emergency line. The City Council voted Tuesday to award a contract to Hyper, a company owned by Motorola Solutions. 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, NVDA, ROBO, NFLX, BLDR, AXP.
