We're Tracking 25 Signals Across 10 of Our Investment Themes

The annual price tag for a private nursing home room is becoming out of reach for many at close to $130,000. ChatGPT can now help you pick a drink at Starbucks. And about one in four Americans say owning a home feels unattainable. These are a handful of the reports we've collected this week that speak to our Pro Portfolio investments.

If you’ve come across a signal we should know about, be sure to drop a link in the Comment section below.

Let's dig in:

Aging Population

The national median annual cost of a private nursing home room is more than $129,575. For middle-class families without long-term care insurance, that figure can wipe out decades of savings in a matter of years. At the federal level, health insurance subsidies (including Medicare and Medicaid) will reach $3.3 trillion by 2033. That figure represents one of the largest line items in the federal budget and a pressure point that will force difficult policy conversations about taxation, benefit structures, and the role of government in elder care. Read more here

As the U.S. faces a historic demographic shift, Stanford experts are developing robots to help older adults walk safely, get dressed, do chores, and maintain independence at home. Read more here

As Italians live longer and traditional family care weakens, growing numbers of sprightly seniors are tempted by new residential developments - known as "silver housing" - that promise independence with community life and services. These residences, common in the United States and northern Europe, are only now gaining a foothold in Italy… Read more here

Position: Labcorp (LH) ; Welltower (WELL)

Artificial Intelligence

The results of the Gallup survey, dating from February 4 to February 19, 2026, and specifically asking 23,717 U.S. employees how often they used AI as part of their role, show an increase in total AI users from 21% in Q2 2023 to 50% in Q1 2026, an increase by 4% since Q4 2025. The number of users who are using AI daily has also increased to a record high of 13% this quarter, while those using it daily or a few times weekly have risen to 28%. Read more here

Launching April 15, the beta Starbucks app in ChatGPT helps you discover drinks in a way that feels natural, personal, and fun. Whether you’re describing your mood or sharing a photo that captures your vibe, the Starbucks app in ChatGPT translates your inspiration into Starbucks drink suggestions crafted just for you. Read more here

Alphabet Inc.’s Google released a standalone Gemini app for macOS, giving owners of Apple Inc.’s Mac computers an easier way of accessing the artificial intelligence assistant. Read more here

Snap on Wednesday announced plans to eliminate about 1,000 jobs, including 16 percent of its full-time staff, as the company seeks to lower costs and increase its reliance on artificial intelligence… “While these changes are necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential, we believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity and better support our community, partners and advertisers,” Read more here

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

Cash-Strapped Consumer

Americans rushing to meet Wednesday’s tax filing deadline are getting bigger refunds on average thanks to President Donald Trump’s tax law, though the savings are falling short of his promises and many say they haven’t noticed a difference… the savings aren’t registering with large numbers of Americans as they confront a surge in gasoline prices driven the US-Israel war in Iran, economic uncertainty and the threat of job losses driven by advances in artificial intelligence. Read more here

The U.S. cattle herd now stands at its smallest since the 1950s, when the U.S. population was half today’s size. Limited supply drove the average retail price of ground beef for hamburgers up to about $6.70 per pound in March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its closely watched consumer price index. That was roughly 12% higher than the same month a year ago. Read more here

There’s a good chance you have a Great Value product in your home right now: perhaps chicken nuggets in the freezer, or paper towels on your counter. The brand (Walmart’s largest private label, which launched in 1993) turns up in 9 out of 10 American households. By Nielsen’s count, that makes it the largest consumer packaged goods brand in the United States—bigger than Coca-Cola and Pampers. Read more here

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

Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity

The attack surface targeted by Iranian-linked hackers in cyberattacks against U.S. critical infrastructure networks includes thousands of Internet-exposed programmable logic controllers (PLCs) manufactured by Rockwell Automation. Read more here

Dutch fitness giant Basic-Fit announced that hackers breached its systems and gained access to information belonging to a million of its customers. The company operates the largest gym chain in Europe, owning more than 1,700 clubs and over 430 franchises in 12 countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, and Germany. Read more here

The ShinyHunters extortion group has leaked data from 13.5 million McGraw Hill user accounts, stolen after breaching the company's Salesforce environment earlier this month… The company confirmed ShinyHunters' breach claims in a statement shared with BleepingComputer on Tuesday, saying the threat actors exploited a misconfiguration in the compromised Salesforce environment and that the incident didn't affect its Salesforce accounts, courseware, customer databases, or internal systems. Read more here

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the threat landscape, enabling attackers to move faster, scale operations and exploit identity-based vulnerabilities in ways that traditional defenses were not designed to handle. Brett Winterford, vice president at Okta Threat Intelligence, said AI is allowing adversaries to collapse multiple stages of an attack and execute them in parallel, dramatically increasing the speed and complexity of intrusions. Read more here

Position: Alphabet, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF, Microsoft

Digital Infrastructure

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing how enterprises operate, unlocking new levels of productivity, efficiency, and business intelligence. Yet while AI enables incredible innovations, it is also creating unprecedented challenges for IT teams responsible for enterprise networks. One of the most transformational impacts of AI is its effect on network infrastructure, particularly its insatiable demand for bandwidth. From massive dataset transfers to low-latency processing, AI’s operational requirements are altering the strategies enterprises must adopt to build and maintain high-performing IT networks. Read more here

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now about to exacerbate the bandwidth availability problem. While annual bandwidth growth has historically averaged 20-30 percent per year, many networking experts are expecting AI to push the bandwidth growth rates to nearly 40 percent annually, with the main driver being data movement requirements. Read more here

Position: Arista Networks (ANET) , Broadcom (AVGO) , Marvell (MRVL) , Nvidia (NVDA) .

Digital Lifestyle

In addition to continued innovation on our new TV UI, after a period of testing and iteration, we are launching an updated mobile experience at the end of the month that includes a vertical video discovery feed. This redesign will better reflect our expanding entertainment offering and make it easier for members to engage how and when they want. Read more here

As we approach WWDC kicking off in June, we’re learning more about what to expect from iOS 27. A new leak today details four features likely destined for iOS 27, including Apple Intelligence, Wallet, and more. Read more here

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

Energy Pain Point

US utilities are planning to spend a record $1.4 trillion on the power grid to keep up with the demands of power-hungry data centers… The investment marks a massive 20% jump from what utility companies were planning to spend last year on power plants, transmission lines and distribution poles and wires, according to PowerLines. Read more here

Position: Eaton (ETN)

Homebuilding & Materials

Roughly one in four Americans say homeownership feels out of reach today, even as most report actively adjusting their finances to cope with ongoing financial pressure, according to a new survey from KeyBank… Just 13 percent of Americans believe homeownership is attainable for them in 2026, according to the poll. The findings, released Monday, coincide with the National Association of Realtors’ Fair Housing Month, underscoring ongoing concerns about access and affordability in the housing market. Read more here

Luxury Buying Boom

Shares in Hermès fell as much as 13 per cent on Wednesday after the luxury group suffered a slowdown in sales, capping a difficult start to the year for the sector as the Middle East conflict hits demand… Hermès reported a “slowdown in tourist flows linked to the situation in the Middle East”, and said sales in the Gulf region had been “significantly impacted by recent geopolitical developments”. Read more here

2026 was meant to be the year that things got better for the luxury industry. Not so far. Luxury behemoth LVMH, Gucci owner Kering and Birkin bag maker Hermès International have all warned this week about the impact of the Iran war on big spending consumers in the Middle East. Read more here

Safety & Security

The Clackamas County Board of Commissioners is set to approve a new contract with Taser and body camera manufacturer Axon to incorporate artificial intelligence into the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office’s process for evidence analysis. Read more here

Pharmacy giant Walgreens is rolling out a pilot program at select stores near Connecticut that allows staff to wear body-worn cameras, similar to those worn by police… Walgreens has closed more than a dozen Connecticut stores in the past year, as its CEO has publicly grappled with the difficulties of combating retail theft. Read more here

In recent years, many nations have quietly engaged in a contest of one-upmanship over these arsenals, including drones that identify and strike targets without human command, self-flying fighter jets that coordinate attacks at speeds and altitudes that few human pilots can reach, and central systems run by A.I. that analyze intelligence to recommend airstrike targets quickly. 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.