Going Gray Online in China, AI on the Menu, KitKat Costs and More News for Investing

As we go through the headlines of the past week that speak to our Pro Portfolio stocks, we find reports of the rise in elderly people in China using the internet, how inflation will hit Nestle products and OpenTable's artificial intelligence's restaurant assistant. Also, we see the financial services industry is a prime target for cyberattacks, hospice care is poised to be a growth industry, and even more AI uses including for airlines, shopping, and construction industries. 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

According to recent estimates, the global hospice services market is projected to grow from USD 85.2 billion in 2025 to USD 145.7 billion by 2032, registering a CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period. North America leads the global hospice services market, accounting for the largest share due to its advanced healthcare infrastructure, strong reimbursement policies, and widespread adoption of palliative care.

Colombia’s population is aging. By 2036, the country will have more older adults than children, as revealed by a projection from the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE). This indicates that a country traditionally considered young is rapidly moving toward an aging population due to a sharp decline in birth rates. Read more here

China had 156 million elderly internet users aged 60 or above as of the end of last year, accounting for approximately 14.1 percent of the nation's total online population, according to a report released on Thursday, which highlighted the country's progress in building an aging-friendly society. The report, released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and China's National Committee on Aging said upwards of 100 million domestic smartphones and smart TVs, along with more than 3,000 commonly used websites, had been adapted for easier use by elderly people by the end of 2024. Read more here

Position: Labcorp LH; Bullpen: Welltower WELL

Artificial Intelligence

A survey of 300 IT leaders finds 90% are leading teams that use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to develop applications, with 71% reporting they will not consider hiring application developers who lack AI and machine learning experience. Conducted by the market research firm Dynata on behalf of App Builder, a unit of Infragistics, the survey also finds 45% of survey respondents who lead organizations that don’t currently use AI to build software expect they will be within the year. Read more here

Air New Zealand is working with OpenAI in a first-of-its-kind collaboration in Aotearoa to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI) across the airline, aiming to boost efficiency and enhance customer outcomes. The airline is part of a group of early OpenAI customers in Asia Pacific that will collaborate with the AI leader at the forefront of enterprise AI adoption. Read more here

According to an inaugural 2025 U.S. Houzz State of AI in Construction and Design Report, 7 in 10 construction and design pros know about AI (69%) and two-thirds believe AI will transform the industry within the next five years (66%)… In the construction industry, nearly one-third of businesses report using AI (32%) and usage doubles among large firms (64%). Similarly, 31% of all design firms report using AI, reaching 50% among large firms. Read more here

Restaurant booking company OpenTable has introduced a new artificial intelligence (AI) assistant to make it easier for diners to get answers to common questions and help restaurants convert queries into bookings. Called Concierge, this feature gives diners information about restaurants, such as suggesting what to order and guidance for dietary restrictions. The AI assistant is embedded in OpenTable’s mobile app and website; it is free for the public to use. Read more here

Position: Alphabet GOOGL, Amazon AMZN, Elastic ESTC, Meta META, Microsoft MSFT, ServiceNow NOW, SuRo Capital SSSS

Cash-Strapped Consumer

Retail spending growth in June shows consumers are still opening their wallets, but an uncertain economic environment means they’re increasingly picky about where their money goes as they try to stretch dollars further. Read more here

Swiss food giant Nestle said Thursday that prices for its KitKat bars and Nespresso coffee pods could rise further in the second half of this year, as U.S. tariffs risk exacerbating existing commodity price pressures. Read more here

The Hershey Company on Tuesday confirmed media reports it is raising candy prices as it battles rising cocoa costs. The price change will be a "low double-digit increase" and affect products across the company's confection portfolio, according to a Hershey spokesperson. Read more here

A downturn in travel could hurt not only the tourism industry in the United States, but also its retailers. Nearly $20 billion in retail spending is at stake this year, Bloomberg reported Thursday (July 24). Some travelers are avoiding the U.S. entirely, in many cases due to the President Donald Trump administration’s immigration policies, the report said. Tourists who do come are often recalculating their budgets as inflation increases the cost of hotels and restaurants… Meanwhile, foreign visitors to the U.S. by air fell 6.6% in June compared to the previous year. Read more here

Position: Amazon, Costco COST

Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity

The number of data breaches in the United States is on track to reach a record high in 2025, with financial services being the “most breached industry,” according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). Overall, there were 1,732 publicly reported data breaches in the first half of the year, the ITRC said in a Wednesday (July 16) press release. That’s 10% more than the 1,571 data compromises that were seen during the same period in 2024. Read more here

Hackers exploited a major security flaw in widely used Microsoft server software to launch a global attack on government agencies and businesses in the past few days, breaching U.S. federal and state agencies, universities, energy companies and an Asian telecommunications company, according to state officials and private researchers. Read more here

Clorox is suing IT giant Cognizant for gross negligence, alleging it enabled a massive August 2023 cyberattack by resetting an employee's password for a hacker without first verifying their identity. The incident was first made public in September 2023, reportedly carried out by hackers associated with Scattered Spider, who utilized a social engineering attack to breach the company. The lawsuit says Cognizant provided IT services to Clorox, including service desk support and identity management, which was the point of compromise that led to a devastating and costly cyberattack for the company. Read more here

Position: Alphabet Elastic, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF, Microsoft

Digital Infrastructure

SK Hynix, the main supplier of high-bandwidth-memory products for Nvidia, plans to increase spending this year to meet strong demand for artificial-intelligence chips that helped it achieve a record second quarter. The South Korean memory-chip maker said Thursday that aggressive AI investments by global big technology companies led to a steady increase in demand for AI memory chips, including 12-layer HBM3E products. Read more here

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to speed up the development of AI data centers on Federal land… The new order instead directs the Secretary of Commerce to launch an initiative to provide financial support, such as loans, grants, and tax incentives. It instructs agencies to streamline environmental reviews and permitting for data centers and related infrastructure, and qualifies projects for faster permitting under the FAST-41 framework. Read more here

A large government-backed data center campus could be coming to northeast England. As reported by the Financial Times, the UK government has reportedly selected the former steel site in Teeside outside Middlesbrough. A planning application for a data center totaling 500,000 sqm (5.38 million sq ft) was submitted locally late last month by Teesworks Ltd, the public-private partnership that is developing the site. Read more here

Positions: Marvell MRVL, Nvidia NVDA, Qualcomm QCOM

Digital Lifestyle

OpenAI is reportedly planning to take a share of eCommerce sales made via ChatGPT. That’s according to a report Wednesday (July 16) by the Financial Times (FT), which says this move is part of a plan by the artificial intelligence (AI) startup to derive new revenues from online shopping features. Read more here

Netflix said Thursday (July 17) that it expects advertising revenue to roughly double in 2025, as the company introduces interactive ads in the second half of the year. “We’ve closed the large majority of deals with the major agencies, those results have generally been in line or slightly better than our targets, and consistent with our goal to roughly double the ads business this year,” Read more here

Positions: Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, SuRo Capital

Energy Pain Point

Anthropic claims that the US will require "at least 50 gigawatts of electric capacity for AI by 2028" to maintain its AI leadership. In a whitepaper, the generative AI company said that training frontier models will require data centers with 5GW capacity by that deadline… The company notes that China has deployed more than 400 gigawatts of power in the last year, compared to several dozen gigawatts in the United States. To catch up, the company made several suggestions - mostly revolving around cutting regulations and approvals. Read more here

Position: Eaton

Guilty Pleasure

Today, one-third (32%) of coffee consumed out-of-home is iced, according to company compiled estimates. For many younger consumers, namely Gen Z, it’s often their first introduction to the ubiquitous drink. Read more here

Homebuilding & Materials

With mortgage rates remaining high and looking unlikely to drop much anytime soon, the housing market outlook is quickly deteriorating. Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi said he thinks a “red flare” is more appropriate for housing, just weeks after he sent off a “yellow flare.” Unless mortgage rates come down substantially, home sales, homebuilding and prices will slump, he warned. Read more here

The U.S. housing market is showing unmistakable signs of crisis, as falling home prices and rising inventory point to a sustained slowdown. More than a third of the country’s largest housing markets are now seeing year-over-year price declines, according to recent data from Zillow and ResiClub. Read more here

Luxury Buying Boom

Diversifying revenue streams as a result of financial challenges is far from a new business phenomenon. But a blossoming trend has emerged among luxury automotive brands that can no longer rely on car sales and heritage to compete in an EV-dominated, economically unstable era: real estate. Read more here

LVMH’s core fashion and leather goods business reported a steep decline in quarterly sales, highlighting continued weak demand for luxury goods after a period of rampant price rises and heightened economic uncertainty. Read more here

British luxury fashion group Burberry has unveiled plans to cut its worldwide workforce by 20%, a move that will affect thousands of staff. As part of this reorganisation, Burberry has begun a collective redundancy process in Italy, where it will dismiss 39 workers out of a total of just under 330 at its Italian headquarters—over 10% of its regional staff. Also, a substantial proportion of fixed-term contracts are not likely to be renewed. Read more here

Safety & Security

Germany's cabinet approved a draft law on Wednesday aimed at accelerating defence procurement and construction on military bases, part of a broad effort to better defend itself and allies in response to a more assertive Russia. Read more here

The Ministry of National Defense is to acquire an additional 48,750 military-grade commercial uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the next two years, an Armaments Bureau notice released on Tuesday on the government’s e-Procurement System showed. The previous procurement plan is expected to be completed by the end of this year, while the new, independent plan would run through 2027. Read more here

Mayor Eric Adams wants more eyes in the sky. The mayor this week announced a new “Drone Operations Committee” that will coordinate and expand official deployments of the aerial robots citywide. The committee, overseen by Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry, will “cement New York City’s position as a national leader” in the airborne technology, officials said in a press release… “Drones are a force multiplier — they give us eyes on the ground in seconds, help us coordinate evacuations, monitor critical infrastructure, and keep our first responders safe,” 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.