25 Signals Across 9 Investing Themes

Smoke Signals

The U.S.-Iran war is starting to reverberate across the economy and push up fertilizer and food prices. More and more Americans are turning 80. Kroger (KR) and Netflix (NFLX) are leaning into AI. Senior housing demand is hitting record levels. And cyberattacks are raging around the globe.

These are just some of the reports we've been watching this past week that impact 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

Demand for senior housing is hitting record highs as the oldest Baby Boomers turn 80 this year. The tipping point was never a question of “if.” Only “when.” When is now, and the challenge of now is to catch up. New survey results from commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield show that demand is rising faster than new construction, tightening the market. Construction is at its lowest level in more than a decade… Read more here

As Canada’s baby boomer generation moves en masse into its retirement years, a quiet crisis is unfolding in the country’s real estate landscape. The demand for seniors housing — from independent living communities to assisted care facilities — is outpacing supply at a rate that experts describe as alarming. For developers, investors, and policymakers alike, the window to respond is narrowing rapidly. Read more here

A protein lurking around in the blood can help with the accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. In a recent study, researchers from Spain investigated how blood-based biomarkers, such as a protein called p-tau217, affect both the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's and neurologists' confidence in their diagnosis. Read more here

Position: Labcorp (LH) ; Welltower (WELL)

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a tool consumers use every day. New PYMNTS Intelligence research shows that 54% of U.S. adults now use AI for personal tasks. The average user relies on between two and three different AI tools, signaling that the technology is quickly moving from novelty to routine utility in daily life. Read more here

Kroger is also investing in artificial intelligence (AI) tools to improve operations, labor scheduling and digital shopping experiences, including an in-house online shopping assistant that will expand nationwide later this year. In January, Google Cloud announced that it is working with Kroger to deploy Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience. Read more here

Netflix said on Thursday it has acquired InterPositive, a filmmaking technology company founded by Academy Award-winning actor and director Ben Affleck that develops artificial intelligence-powered tools designed for movie production. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition signals a growing shift within the media industry toward embracing artificial intelligence as a tool for content creation and storytelling. Read more here

In its Cyber Pulse report, Microsoft has revealed a very significant figure: more than 80% of Fortune 500 companies have active AI agents built with low-code/no-code tools. This is not just an increase — it shows a massive shift in how enterprises, right at the top of their game, approach automation. Read more here

Position: Alphabet (GOOGL) , Amazon (AMZN) , Arista Networks (ANET) , Axon (AXON) , Meta (META) , Microsoft (MSFT) , Palantir (PLTR) , ServiceNow (NOW) , SuRo Capital (SSSS)

Cash-Strapped Consumer

Gasoline prices in the United States jumped seven cents to $3.32 a gallon, on average, on Friday, the latest in a series of price increases in the week since the start of the war led by the United States and Israel against Iran.That was the highest since September 2024, according to the AAA motor club… Read more here

The global fertiliser supply chain could face significant disruption if the effective closure by Iran of the strait of Hormuz persists, prompting concerns from analysts about crop production and food security. Passage through the waterway, located off Iran’s southern coast, has mostly stopped since the US and Israel launched their attacks at the weekend. Between a quarter and a third of the global trade in the raw materials for fertiliser passes through the strait, as well as a fifth of seaborne crude oil and gas. Read more here

More than a year into the second Trump administration, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that nearly four in five Americans say inflation is a “very big” concern for them personally and that few describe the U.S. economy as “booming.” Read more here

Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996 and now age 30–45, are navigating a cost-of-living environment that has ceased spiking and cooling to stay persistently high. In this Data Book, these consumers (including bridge millennials, born between 1978 and 1988 and now age 38–48) stand out for the number of overlapping financial pressures they face, the number of tactics they use to cope and how quickly their confidence in those maneuvers is eroding. Read more here

Position: Amazon, Costco (COST) , TJX Companies (TJX)

Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity

Unauthorized-party fraud has reclaimed center stage, reversing last year’s pattern and reshaping how banks think about risk. That is the core shift in the “2025 State of Fraud and Financial Crime in the United States” report, produced by PYMNTS Intelligence in collaboration with Block. Based on a survey of 200 executives at U.S. financial institutions, the report finds that fraud is not only becoming more sophisticated but also more concentrated in credential theft and account takeovers. Read more here

The Middle East conflict will have "immediate repercussions" for European Union security with an increased threat of terrorism, serious and organised crime as well as violent extremism and cyberattacks, ‌European police body Europol told Spanish news agency EFE on Thursday. Read more here

The Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center is warning American health systems to shore up their cybersecurity posture against the threat of distributed denial-of-service attacks stemming from the military conflict with Iran. Read more here

The number of Trojan banker attacks on Android smartphones increased by 56 per cent in 2025 compared to the previous year, 2024. The claim was made by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky in a report titled “Mobile Malware Evolution.” This type of malware is designed to steal user credentials for online banking, e-payment services and credit card systems. Read more here

Position: Alphabet, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF, Microsoft

Digital Lifestyle

Oura Health is acquiring Finland-based startup Doublepoint Technologies as the smart ring maker moves to add gesture and voice interactions to future versions of its wearable devices, Bloomberg News reported Thursday (March 5). The deal brings gesture-recognition technology developed by Doublepoint into Oura’s product roadmap, enabling users to control devices using small hand movements detected through a combination of artificial intelligence and biometric signals, the report said. Read more here

Position: Alphabet (GOOGL) , Amazon, Apple, Meta (META) , SuRo Capital (SSSS)

Energy Pain Point

The tail end of 2025 saw continued growth in most utilities’ spending and load projections, with Duke Energy claiming the distinction of having the largest capital spending plan of any regulated electric utility in the U.S. Companies used their fourth-quarter earnings presentations to highlight their efforts to address affordability concerns through large load tariffs and other means as they come under pressure from ratepayers, regulators and elected representatives over rising costs. Transmission, grid hardening and wildfire mitigation also figured prominently in several spending plans… Read more here

Position: Eaton (ETN)

Homebuilding & Materials

Almost 45,000 for-sale homes that were taken off the market last year were listed in January, according to a new Redfin study, as sellers hope the spring homebuying season will revitalize the sleepy U.S. housing market. It was the highest January number in records dating back a decade, promising to boost housing supply and give buyers more negotiating power over sellers. Read more here

Homebuilders are expanding their use of discounts, with nearly 1 in 5 new homes carrying a price cut in late 2025, according to a new analysis from the Realtor.com® economic research team. In the fourth quarter, 19.3% of listings for new builds offered price reductions, compared to just 18% of existing homes. This means that, for the first time in recent history, new homes were more likely than previously owned homes to carry a price cut, according to the Realtor.com Quarterly New-Construction Insights report. Read more here

Luxury Buying Boom

Chinese shoppers are returning to luxury stores, but with less appetite to spend and in greatly diminished numbers. That is disappointing for high-end brands desperate for fresh growth... If the global luxury industry is to get back to the 6% annual growth it averaged over the past two decades, it needs China to recover. Luxury stocks used to be a favorite way for investors to get exposure to the country’s then-booming middle class. Read more here

Kering and the Chalhoub Group, a long-standing local distributor of prestigious brands in the Middle East, have already announced measures to restrict their activities in the region. But other players in the luxury sector are also likely to suffer from the conflict initiated by Israel, the United States, and Iran, which is now engulfing several of their neighbors. Read more here

Safety & Security

China will boost defence spending by 7% in 2026, it said on Thursday, the lowest rate in five years but still outpacing wider economic growth targets and the rest of Asia at a time of growing regional tension, including over Taiwan. Security analysts and regional military attaches are watching China's budget closely as it scrambles to ‌modernise the military by 2035, while stepping up deployments across East Asia and purging the top brass to tackle graft. Read more here

President Emmanuel Macron of France has persistently called for Europe to act decisively to defend itself and its own interests in a world where Russia is on the march, China is economically aggressive and the United States is turning away… But there is a built-in political problem. Germany is already spending much more money than its European partners, according to military spending trackers… Read more here

Poland has been the biggest buyer among the world’s central banks for the last two years, and a major support for the gold rally that has taken place over that time. Now, facing year four of the intractable conflict between Russia and Ukraine on its Eastern border and a NATO alliance in flux, the Eastern European nation is considering the unthinkable: selling its gold reserve to fund a massive military buildup. Read more here

US military forces are turning to a range of artificial intelligence tools to quickly manage enormous amounts of data for operations against Iran, according to US Central Command, highlighting the emerging technology’s growing role in warfare. Read more here

Position: Axon (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.

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.