We’re Tracking 29 Signals Across 9 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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Walmart (WMT) says shoppers are getting squeezed by high gas prices. AI is getting deeper into healthcare services. Cyberattacks have compromised Apple (AAPL) designs. And here’s an inconvenient truth about 7-11: The retailer was hacked. Those are just a few of the signals we’ve uncovered this week that speak to our Pro Portfolio investment themes.
If you’ve come across a signal we should know about, be sure to drop a link in the Comment section below.
Ageing Population
An aging population, rising retirement rates and a stagnating labor market could have serious consequences for the state and its residents if left unaddressed, state demographers said Friday. Data presented to state lawmakers painted a stark picture of Michigan’s labor market, which officials say has seen little upward momentum since bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here
Metro Detroit’s 65+ population is projected to grow 22% from 2020 to 2030, and more primary care providers are needed to care for the population. Read more here
Despite their crucial function, public hospitals often face limited resources and financial distress, and an aging population can further exacerbate any imbalances in medical resource distribution. Furthermore, the proportion of aging individuals is not uniform across the country; in Japan, this has led to regional disparities in healthcare for the elderly. Read more here
Position: Labcorp (LH); Welltower (WELL)
Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic’s revenue is set to more than double to $10.9 billion in the second quarter, an explosive rate of growth that will help it turn an operating profit for the first time… At the company’s developer conference, hosted in San Francisco earlier this month, Chief Executive Dario Amodei joked that its revenue growth had become “too hard to handle” and that he was hoping for “some more normal numbers.” Read more here
Microsoft is working with professional services network EY to help companies launch AI projects. The $1 billion partnership, announced Thursday (May 21), will see Microsoft’s Forward Deployed Engineers (FDE) and EY industry professionals join forces to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) adoption… AI is quickly moving from experimentation to a core driver of business performance, and the companies pulling ahead are those scaling AI transformation… Read more here
Anthropic has expanded its enterprise AI strategy through the first acquisition tied to its newly launched consulting venture, selecting San Francisco-based Fractional AI as the operational foundation of the business… The acquisition reflects a broader shift in the AI market as model developers seek more direct control over enterprise deployment. According to Bloomberg, both Anthropic and OpenAI have formed joint ventures with major alternative asset managers to drive adoption of their AI tools across portfolio companies and other midsize businesses. Read more here
Paul Uren, JPMorgan’s Asia Pacific head of investment banking, confirmed to Reuters that the firm is in the “early phase” of adopting these tools globally. He noted that these AI tools allow bankers to quickly access and synthesize information, streamline the preparation of content, and engage with more clients more efficiently…. Read more here
The share of healthcare firms that use AI for customer service chatbots and virtual agents is 60%. That is the sector’s highest-reported AI use case and reflects the pressure to manage high volumes of patient, member and customer interactions more efficiently. The share of healthcare firms that use AI for workforce planning and skills gap analysis is 55%. Read more here
“We’re also becoming AI native,” CEO John Furner told analysts, describing efforts to use AI to make shopping more personalized and expand how customers interact with Walmart across channels. Sparky, Walmart’s AI shopping assistant, is the clearest proof point. Weekly active users more than doubled during the quarter, and Furner noted that improvements in AI increased Sparky’s intelligence and response quality by 40% this year. Read more here
Position: Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Arista Networks (ANET), Axon (AXON), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), ServiceNow (NOW), SuRo Capital (SSSS)
Cash-Strapped Consumer
Walmart has warned higher petrol prices are causing US consumers to cut spending elsewhere as the war with Iran continues to squeeze household budgets. The retail giant expects its sales growth between May and July to slow significantly from the previous three months, with higher prices at the pump to blame. Read more here
Kroger is reportedly considering steep price cuts to take on other grocery giants. Greg Foran, the former Walmart executive who joined the supermarket chain as CEO earlier this year, said in a Bloomberg News interview published Thursday (May 21) that the company is setting the stage to reduce prices across product categories. Kroger wants to up competition with Walmart and other companies that have gained market share in recent years at the expense of traditional grocery stores… Read more here
As the Iran war pushes U.S. gas prices toward $4.60 a gallon, straining consumer budgets, Walmart shoppers are putting less fuel in the tank when they pull up to the pump. Read more here
Consumer polls about the state of the U.S. economy suggest the mood is grim: Two-thirds of respondents to a recent CBS News poll reported feeling financially stressed, while a majority said soaring gasoline prices are causing hardship. Read more here
Position: Amazon, Costco (COST), TJX Companies (TJX)
Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity
AI, and especially agentic AI, is remodeling attack and defense throughout cybersecurity. Any distinction between emerging targets and primary targets in app security has dissolved, courtesy of bad actors’ rapid adoption of agentic AI. All apps should be considered primary targets, and security budgets should be allocated to reflect the new reality. Read more here
Cybercriminals brought down the most widely used learning platform in North America. The Canvas breach is a blueprint for how SaaS attacks now work — and a warning about how unprepared most organizations still are. Read more here
On May 12, AppleInsider reported that ransomware group Nitrogen hacked into Foxconn facilities in North America. Initially, based on the available sample files, it appeared that the attackers didn’t obtain any Apple documentation. However, additional sample files have now been provided to AppleInsider, including more than 30 confidential Apple documents, all of which appear to be genuine. We’ve analyzed the newly available sample, and while we won’t share any links, the files have all the hallmarks of genuine Apple documentation. Nitrogen managed to obtain schematics detailing Apple server component designs from March 2026 and late 2025. Read more here
Convenience store chain giant 7-Eleven confirmed that its systems were breached in a cyberattack claimed by the ShinyHunters extortion group last month… As detailed in data breach notifications sent to affected individuals on May 1 and filed in multiple U.S. states on Friday, the company discovered in early April that attackers gained access to some 7-Eleven systems and the personal information of an undisclosed number of individuals. Read more here
Position: Alphabet, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF, Microsoft
Digital Infrastructure
Anthropic will pay Elon Musk’s SpaceX $1.25 billion a month over the next three years to rent space at the company’s xAI data centers, an IPO filing has revealed… In a separate agreement announced in April, SpaceX/xAI said AI code editing startup Cursor would also be using space at xAI data centers, and in the IPO document, it reports that other firms could rent its data center capacity, effectively turning it into a cloud provider. Read more here
The booming global semiconductor market will be “tense” with tight supply for the foreseeable future, the head of chip-making machine giant ASML (ASML.AS), opens new tab told Reuters, with demand from AI, satellites and robots outpacing what the industry can produce. Read more here
Position: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Arista Networks, Broadcom, Eaton, Marvell, Meta, Nvidia
Digital Lifestyle
Stellantis, the automaker behind the Jeep and Ram brands, has tapped self-driving startup Wayve to bring hands-free driving to its vehicles in 2028… Read more here
Tesla has begun deploying fully autonomous vehicles without human safety monitors in Austin, Dallas, and Houston. Elon Musk told the Smart Mobility Summit that this rollout will extend nationwide before the end of 2026, marking a major expansion of Tesla’s driverless technology. The company also holds regulatory approval for a ride-hailing service in Arizona, suggesting readiness to scale beyond its Texas base. Read more here
WHOOP, the human performance company, announced it has been awarded a contract with MIT Lincoln Laboratory, under sponsorship from the U.S. Navy, to support the advancement of the Navy’s Command Readiness, Endurance, and Watchstanding (CREW) program. Read more here
Position: Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon, Apple, Meta (META), Netflix, SuRo Capital (SSSS)
Energy Pain Point
Tremendous energy demand in the U.S. was largely fueled by a huge increase in electricity needs across the country. Economic growth and a cold winter that required ample heating usage powered some of that rise, but the single largest contributor to the nation’s additional power appetite last year was the rapid build-out of data centers, the critical server infrastructure tech companies are rolling out to train artificial intelligence models. Data centers accounted for around 50% of all electricity demand growth in the U.S. last year, according to the IEA, far surpassing the rise in electricity usage in the residential, industrial, and transport sectors. Read more here
The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that data centers will “increasingly skew more energy intensive” and that electricity consumed by them will increase across all commercial building stock, with their servers growing to make up an estimated 22% to 33% of commercial building electricity use by 2050… Read more here
Position: Eaton (ETN)
Homebuilding & Materials
With housing turnover at historic lows, retailers like Lowe’s are losing out on a key source of renovation demand, though maintained guidance signals confidence that Pro strength can offset do-it-yourself softness… A report from the National Association of Realtors earlier this month showed listed houses were staying longer on the market relative to the same period last year. Read more here
Mortgage rates jumped above 6.5% amid a global bond market rout that pushed up yields on government debt… Investors now see little chance that the Federal Reserve will cut benchmark interest rates by year-end, and odds of a potential rate hike in the coming months are rising. While the Fed doesn’t directly control mortgage rates, they are influenced by expectations about what the central bank will do in the future. Read more here
Safety & Security
The defence industry, long considered a value trade, has in the past few years become a growth play. Global conflict is on the rise, and technology — from AI and cheap drones to sensors, robotics and unmanned systems — is fundamentally changing the nature of war. And that’s leading to an investment boom. Read more here
Sweden will order four navy warships from France in a $4 billion deal that will see its air defense capacity triple, the Nordic country announced on Tuesday morning. The investment would be Sweden’s biggest defense investment since the 1980′s… Read more here
According to MarketGenics, the global AI in Public Safety Market is experiencing rapid growth due to increasing investments in smart city infrastructure, rising concerns regarding national security, growing cyber threats, and the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence technologies by law enforcement and emergency response agencies. The market is projected to grow from approximately USD 3.4 billion in 2025 to nearly USD 8.4 billion by 2035, registering a CAGR of around 9.3% during the forecast period. 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.
