Instagram TV, Pricey Groceries, the Nuclear Push and More Investing News

Instagram envisions a television app. Prices are going up in the grocery stores. Electricity demand was high before the AI push. These are some of the news headlines we've compiled that speak to our Pro Portfolio holdings. 

In addition, we show why -- in the excerpts below -- we're bullish on the shares of Welltower  (WELL)  and Labcorp  (LH) , companies are adopting AI, the data center crunch will continue into next year and comments from Ford  (F)  and Ferrari  (RACE)  should serve as a warning for the EV market.

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

Senior housing is positioned for a period of rapid growth. The U.S. population age 80 and older is expected to rise by more than four million, to 18.8 million, by 2030. At the same time, annual inventory growth for senior housing has dropped below 1%. Compared to 2024, the market has done a 180, says Alex Vice, senior director at Walker & Dunlop. Read more here

In recent years, the demographic shift towards an aging population has profoundly impacted healthcare systems worldwide. The increasing number of older adults necessitates a reevaluation of care delivery frameworks, particularly emphasizing the role of family and community nurses. Read more here

Position: Labcorp  (LH) ; Welltower  (WELL)

Artificial Intelligence

G2’s 2025 AI Agents Insights Report, by contrast, surveyed more than 1,300 B2B decision-makers, finding that:

· 57% of companies have agents in production and 70% say agents are “core to operations”;

· 83% of are satisfied with agent performance;

· Enterprises are now investing an average of $1 million-plus annually, with 1 in 4 spending $5 million-plus;

· 9 out of 10 plan to increase that investment over the next 12 months;

· Organizations have seen 40% cost savings, 23% faster workflows, and 1 in 3 report 50%-plus speed gains, particularly in marketing and sales;

· Nearly 90% of study participants reported higher employee satisfaction in departments where agents were deployed. Read more here

More than 18bn messages are sent to ChatGPT every week. In just three years, OpenAI’s chatbot has been used by more than one in 10 people and at a rate of adoption the world wide web did not achieve until the early 2000s — more than a decade after it was released… With billions of interactions from millions of users every day, the Financial Times spoke to some of the biggest AI companies and reviewed detailed usage reports to understand how people were integrating these tools into daily life. It revealed that from teachers to web developers, and from shopping lists to relationship advice, AI has become the world’s digital assistant. Read more here

The use cases for AI bots are shifting rapidly, too. ChatGPT data shows the split between personal- and work-related messages was already a 53/47% split in mid-2024, and it's now shifted to 73/27%, clearly highlighting that users are integrating the bot into their daily routines. For its part, Meta says that its AI assistant, recently embedded into WhatsApp, Instagram, and even Ray-Ban glasses, has reached one billion monthly users. Read more here

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

Cash-Strapped Consumer

Grocery prices rose by 2.7% in August from a year earlier, the fastest annual pace since August 2023, according to the latest consumer price index. Currently, groceries make up the bulk of credit card purchases for many Americans, with 46% citing it as their top spending category in a typical month, the TD Bank survey found. Read more here

Total credit and debit card spending per household increased 2.0% year-over-year (YoY) in September, compared to 1.7% YoY in August, according to Bank of America aggregated card data. Seasonally adjusted (SA) spending growth per household rose 0.2% month-over-month (MoM), the fourth straight monthly gain. Lower-income households showed some spending recovery, but growth remains muted compared to middle- and higher-income groups, likely due to softer wage gains in this cohort. Read more here

“Retail sales dipped in September as consumers hit the pause button after two solid months of back-to-school spending,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Amid continued economic uncertainty, consumers opted to preserve spending power in preparation for the important holiday season. While month-over-month spending data has fluctuated as consumers have reacted to changing circumstances, year-over-year gains show robust growth and signal momentum as we head into the holidays.” Total retail sales, excluding automobiles and gasoline, were down 0.66% seasonally adjusted month over month but up 5.42% unadjusted year over year in September, according to the Retail Monitor. That compared with increases of 0.5% month over month and 6.81% year over year in August. Read more here

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

Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity

Japan is facing a shortage of Asahi products, including beer and bottled tea, as the drinks giant grapples with the impact of a major cyber-attack that has affected its operations in the country. Most of the Asahi Group's factories in Japan were brought to a standstill after the attack hit its ordering and delivering systems on Monday. Read more here

Over the weekend, Discord revealed that its users may have had their data compromised when a third-party service provider was hacked. At the time, the platform said that a "small number" of government IDs may have been illicitly accessed. Today, however, claims circulated that the attackers had obtained more than 2 million photos that had been used for age-verification purposes. In response, the company said that about 70,000 users "may have had government-ID photos exposed." Read more here

A cybercrime gang tracked as Storm-2657 has been targeting university employees in the United States to hijack salary payments in "pirate payroll" attacks since March 2025. Microsoft Threat Intelligence analysts who spotted this campaign found that the threat actors are targeting Workday accounts; however, other third-party human resources (HR) software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms could also be at risk. Read more here

Position: Alphabet, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF, Microsoft

Digital Infrastructure

The US has approved several billion dollars’ worth of Nvidia Corp. chip exports to American customers including Oracle Corp. for use in projects in the United Arab Emirates, an initial step in implementing a controversial deal that could serve as a blueprint for President Donald Trump’s AI statecraft. Read more here

Microsoft Corp.’s data-center crunch will continue for longer than the company has previously outlined, underscoring the software giant’s struggles to keep up with cloud demand… That’s a longer time frame than the company has previously outlined. In July, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said current constraints would continue through the end of 2025… During the last six quarterly earnings calls, Microsoft has said it was unable to meet all of its customers’ cloud demand. Amazon and Google have described similar constraints. Read more here

A 120-acre data center is to be built between the Canadian cities of Calgary and Edmonton.

On October 7, the Red Deer County Planning Commission voted to approve an application for a modular data center located on a 1,000 sqm (10,765 sq ft) land parcel in Blindman Industrial Park. This will be accompanied by the construction of an administration building. Read more here

Related Digital has broken ground on a $1.2 billion data center campus in Cheyenne, Wyoming, which will host AI infrastructure for CoreWeave. The 115-acre campus will be located on land on Cheyenne Business Parkway, and could eventually offer up to 302MW of capacity. As anchor tenant, CoreWeave has agreed what is described as a “long-term lease” to rent 88MW of space. Read more here

Positions: Arista Networks, Marvell  (MRVL) , Nvidia  (NVDA) , Qualcomm  (QCOM)

Digital Lifestyle

Instagram is exploring building a dedicated TV app as part of a deeper push into video, a move that could get Instagram videos in front of more viewers and also provide more competition for YouTube, which already makes it very easy to watch videos on a television. Read more here

Position: Alphabet, Amazon, Meta

Energy Pain Point

"Even before the recent AI push, the U.S. was facing a rapidly growing demand for energy—particularly electricity—driven by an increase in electric vehicle and transportation systems, buildings, and data centers," said lead author Yury Dvorkin, an associate professor of civil and systems engineering. "Our research highlights a pressing issue: While energy demand driven by AI growth and electrification is soaring, there's a stark gap between this demand and our supply capabilities." Read more here

America’s investor-owned electric companies are poised to deploy record-setting investment to launch one of the most aggressive infrastructure modernization campaigns in industry history in a bid to confront unprecedented electricity demand growth and prepare for a fundamentally transformed energy landscape. In total, over the next five years, the industry is poised to invest more than $1.1 trillion to enhance and expand the grid, according to the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), a trade group that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies. That represents an unprecedented accelerated investment pace. By comparison, industry deployed $1.3 trillion over the past 10 years… Read more here

The future of nuclear power in Idaho is looking strong. The Gem State recently took two important steps demonstrating its commitment to unleashing the potential of nuclear energy. These efforts are working hard alongside other governmental and private partners to meet the need and promote Idaho as a viable state to fill the energy demand of the future. Read more here

Position: Eaton

EV Transition

… analysts say the boom was caused by a dash to buy before the end of a government subsidy that helped knock as much as $7,500 (£5,588) off the price of certain battery electric, plug-in hybrid or fuel cell vehicles. With that tax credit gone as of the end of September, carmakers are expecting momentum to shift into reverse. "It's going to be a vibrant industry, but it's going to be smaller, way smaller than we thought," Ford chief executive Jim Farley said at an event on Tuesday. "I expect that EV demand is going to drop off pretty precipitously," the chief financial officer of General Motors, Paul Jacobson, said at a conference last month, adding it would take time to see how quickly buyers would come back. Read more here

In a separate update, Ferrari said it would target a 2030 sports car model lineup made up of 40% internal combustion engine, or ICE, cars, 40% hybrid and 20% fully electric vehicles. Ferrari said the revised target, which is down from a prior goal of 40% EV sales by the end of the decade, is the result of a client-centric approach, the current environment and its expected evolution. Read more here

Homebuilding & Materials

Although foreclosures — which include default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — remain well below their pre-pandemic levels, they are on the rise. As of August, foreclosure filings had risen six straights months year-over-year and were up 18% from the same period in 2024, according to property data firm ATTOM. Through June, roughly 188,000 properties had foreclosure filings, putting the U.S. on track to surpass the roughly 322,000 U.S. properties that went into foreclosure in 2024. Read more here

Safety & Security

The Senate finally passed its $913.9 billion version of the fiscal 2026 defense policy bill today, after lawmakers overcame a logjam on amendments that led to the legislation languishing on the floor for more than a month. Read more here

Italy is ready to use an EU-devised accounting trick to help boost its defense budget by €12 billion, or $14 billion, as it tries to meet tough new NATO spending targets. Read more here

Taiwan will accelerate the building of a “Taiwan Shield” or “T-Dome” air defense system in the face of the military threat from China, its leader said Friday. President Lai Ching-te also pledged to raise defense spending to more than 3% of GDP and to reach 5% by 2030. GDP, or gross domestic product, is a measure of the size of the overall economy. 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.

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 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.