$20 'Prime' Shoppers; Gray New Yorkers; Hacker Hacks; and More Investing News
Let's scan through the headlines for the stories of the week that speak to our Pro Portfolio holdings.
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Amid another wild news week, we continued to dig below the main headlines for the reports that speak to the Pro Portfolio’s strategies and holdings. This time around, we find New York is getting serious about addressing its aging population, CFOs see GenAI as “very important,” and that European defense spending continues to climb. Amid those bullish signals, we continue to see fresh evidence of cybercrime, which means it remains a moving pain point that needs to be addressed continually.
If you’ve come across a signal we should know about, be sure to drop a link in the Comment section below.
And if you haven’t watched this week’s TheStreet Stocks & Markets podcast, here’s a helpful link so you can.
Aging Population
New York’s population is graying. According to U.S. Census data, in 2000, those over 65 accounted for just under 13% of the population, but by 2020, that number jumped 4.5% to 17% of the total population. With New Yorkers living longer, the Empire State is laying out a plan for how to better serve the needs of its aging population. Read more here
The global population is getting older. By 2030 there will be nearly 1.5 billion people who will be at least 60, according to the World Health Organization. Studies have found that most older adults want to stay in their own homes. To help them, an assortment of technologies known as age tech is being developed to improve their quality of life and help them maintain their independence for as long as possible. Products include health and wellness monitoring devices, financial management systems, home-care robots, and smart appliances. Read more here
Position: Labcorp LH; Bullpen: Welltower WELL
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI rolled out its latest entry in the red-hot area of independently operating AI bots, an agent that lets users automate tasks like online shopping and create spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. ChatGPT agent, as the bot is called, runs on a new AI model created to power the capability, the San Francisco-based company said. Read more here
Walmart is expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) offerings by introducing a new shopping assistant. Customers can now access the generative AI-powered “Sparky” on the Walmart app… In addition to making recommendations, Sparky also provides “instant and comprehensive” answers to product questions, the announcement added, helping customers understand specific features, compare items and make informed choices. Read more here
The ranks of CFOs who consider generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) as “very” or “extremely” important to their enterprises have about doubled across use cases, according to the upcoming CAIO report from PYMNTS Intelligence… Among high-impact companies, the top three use cases for GenAI are innovating of products and services; generating real-time, automated responses to customer queries; and creating contextualized emails or recommendations. Each were cited by 87.5% of CFOs. Read more here
Cash-Strapped Consumer
Amazon’s extended four-day Prime Day drove billions in sales, but beneath the surface, it exposed a consumer increasingly focused on sub-$20 essentials and less interested in big-ticket impulse buys. The average household spend — $156 — was roughly flat year over year, even as inflation cooled. Walmart, responding in kind, leaned heavily on its Walmart+ Week campaign to underscore “everyday low prices,” particularly on school supplies, which it advertised as costing less than last year. Read more here
Position: Amazon, Costco COST
Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity
Cybercriminals have intensified their efforts to steal and sell online passwords, experts warn. The alarm comes after the discovery of online datasets containing billions of exposed account credentials. The 30 datasets comprised a whopping 16 billion login credentials across multiple platforms, including Apple, Google and Facebook, and were first reported by Cybernews researchers last week. Read more here
UK retailer Co-op has confirmed that personal data of 6.5 million members was stolen in the massive cyberattack in April that shut down systems and caused food shortages in its grocery stores. Read more here
UK customers of luxury goods brand Louis Vuitton have been warned to be on their guard against opportunist fraud attempts after their data was compromised in a cyber attack on the retailer. In an email sent to customers, Louis Vuitton revealed that its IT systems were accessed on 2 July 2025 by an unauthorised third party, who was able to obtain data including names, contact details and purchasing histories – all data of use to cyber criminals. Read more here
The Stormous ransomware gang claims it has stolen personal and health data belonging to 600,000 patients from health provider North Country HealthCare. Read more here
Position: Alphabet Elastic, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF, Microsoft
Digital Infrastructure
For the trial SoftBank installed three 7GHz-compatible pre-commercial base stations in central Tokyo, and used Massive MIMO technology to work out how 6G area coverage comparable to 5G can be deployed in urban areas. The 7GHz band is a centimetre-wave frequency under consideration for 6G, we’re told, and centimetre waves are radio waves with wavelengths between 1–10 cm (frequencies of 3–30 GHz), and within this range, the 7–24 GHz band is “emerging as a candidate for next-generation mobile networks.” Read more here
Worldwide IT spend will reach $5.43 trillion this year, an increase of 7.9% over 2024, and it comes at a time when CIOs appear to be pausing their net-new spending as a result of political uncertainty, according to Gartner’s latest forecast, released Tuesday. Despite this, ongoing AI and generative AI (genAI) digitization initiatives are not being affected. “[While] both software and services spending growth in 2025 are expected to slow down due to this ‘uncertainty pause,’ spending in AI-related infrastructure, such as data center systems, continues to surge,” Read more here
Gartner expects investments in data center hardware to spike more than 40% to nearly half a trillion dollars this year, the report said, almost doubling the growth rate in the January forecast. “Data centers are experiencing a surge driven by Gen AI, with spending on AI optimized servers, which was virtually nonexistent in 2021, expected to triple that of traditional servers by 2027,” Read more here
Construction backlog rebounded to 8.7 months in June due to a strong flow of data center projects, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors survey conducted June 20 to July 7... That pace shows few signs of slowing. Contractors on the ground say early-stage data center demand remains highly elevated in both primary hubs and emerging markets. Read more here
Luxury Buying Boom
London-based De Beers almost single-handedly persuaded generations of consumers that love wasn’t genuine unless it was sealed with a diamond. The stones were prized not only for their beauty but also as a miracle of nature formed over a billion years deep in the earth, and then extracted in exotic locales—often on behalf of De Beers. Now diamonds can be made in labs that mimic the earth’s extreme pressure and temperatures, but for a fraction of the price. Read more here
Luxury retail was expected to stage a turnaround in 2025 after a promising fourth quarter marked by holiday shopping and post-election euphoria. Instead, U.S. credit card spending on luxury goods fell during the first five months of the year compared with the same period in 2024, according to data from Citigroup… However, these gains aren’t equally distributed. Jewelry has proven to be a bright spot, consistently outperforming other categories like leather goods and ready-to-wear. Read more here
Position: None
Safety & Security
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced plans for a substantial increase in defense spending over the next few years, warning of imminent threats to France and wider Europe’s security… Macron called for to raise defense spending by 3.5 billion euros ($4.09 billion) next year and by another 3 billion in 2027. That would take the total amount spent on security that year to 64 billion euros — double the defense budget the the French armed forces had in 2017, when Macron first became president. Read more here
Global defense spending has surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with nations donating military equipment to boost Ukraine’s capabilities while also restocking their own domestic arsenals. A shifting stance from the U.S. administration toward its military support of Europe and a recently agreed pledge from North Atlantic Treaty Organization members to spend 5% of GDP on defense is also driving continued investment in the sector. Read more here
From cruise ships to telecommunications, European companies are finding ways to increasingly pivot to military contracts as they seek to cash in on a defense boom that’s sweeping the continent. Read more here
Law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area have integrated drones into operations for over a decade. The San Jose Police Department pioneered this in 2015, using a federally funded drone for hostage situations and bomb squad support. This shared resource introduced 13 other agencies to the technology, allowing them to assess incidents remotely and minimize risks to officers, reports Silicon Valley. Building on that, Sgt. Justin Brannon, who leads the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Small Unmanned Aircraft System unit, shifted his view after hands-on experience. Read more here
Position: Axon Enterprise AXON, Palantir PLTR
The Strategies Behind Our Thematic Models
Aging of the Population - Capturing the demographic wave of the aging population and the changing demands it brings with it.
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.
CHIPs Act – Capturing the reshoring of the US semiconductor industry and the $52.7 billion poised to be spent on semiconductor manufacturing.
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 benefitting 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.
