Trump Makes 6G Decision, Loan Delinquencies Surge and More Investing News

Visa (V) moves deeper into artificial intelligence. The president signs a memorandum on 6G development. And coffee drinkers are getting creative on how to save on the bean. These were a few of the stories we spotted this week when looking for news that relates to the Pro Portfolio.

We also have multiple reminders about the looming energy pain point, the senior housing shortage, and why chocolate will remain pricey near-term.

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

Aging Population

Modern care solutions for today's rapidly growing aging population are prioritizing home-based elderly care strategies. Community-centric solutions and technological innovations are also helping many seniors age in place. Aging in place, which means living in one's own home and community as one gets older, is of particular importance to many Americans. Indeed, it's something that nearly three in four Americans (74%) desire, according to Realtor.com. Read more here

Land-use and permitting reforms have gained increased attention as policymakers throughout the country struggle with the nation’s housing shortage, which is estimated to be 4 million to 7 million homes. This shortage has pushed rents, housing prices, and homelessness to record levels in recent years, with costs to buy and rent much higher than historical norms. Read more here

Positions: Labcorp (LH) ; Welltower (WELL)

Artificial Intelligence

Visa said on Thursday that it successfully completed hundreds of AI transactions as part of a pilot program that kicked off after the company’s product event in April. The payments network and rivals across the fintech industry are racing to build tools that allow consumers to task artificial intelligence agents with completing certain transactions. Read more here

As we saw on Black Friday, Amazon’s AI assistant, Rufus is reshaping consumer behavior. Sessions that led to purchases doubled for Rufus users, compared with only a 20% increase for shoppers who didn’t use it. That shift isn’t siloed to Rufus either. Seventy-three percent of consumers use AI assistants to help them shop, 58% use AI for holiday gifts, and 70% are comfortable letting AI complete their transactions, according to an October Riskified survey of 5,400 people. Read more here

OpenAI has introduced an app directory that's now available right inside ChatGPT, the company announced. "Apps extend ChatGPT conversations by bringing in new context and letting users take action like order groceries, turn an outline into a slide deck or search for an apartment," the company wrote in a blog post. OpenAI also noted in a help document that "connector" apps like Google Drive are now simply called "apps." The new apps section (on iOS, Android and web) is divided into Feature, Lifestyle and Productivity categories, letting you connect to commonly used apps and sites like Booking.com, Spotify and Dropbox. Read more here

AI adoption is now mainstream, but the economic impact will be determined by where consumers start, how fully the technology replaces old habits and which payment rails can be trusted within AI experiences. More than six in 10 consumers used dedicated AI platforms in the past year. However, behaviors diverge sharply by generation and intensity of use. Dedicated AI platforms (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini) are becoming “first stop” tools for Gen Z and Power Users. These consumers are significantly more likely to reduce search usage and replace prior search methods. Finally, consumers signal that digital wallets are the most credible bridge from AI engagement to secure commerce. Read more here

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

Cash-Strapped Consumer

… there are signs of trouble. Most notably, auto loan delinquencies have been surging to their highest level in history. It's the same with student loans, where delinquencies are far higher than normal. So what's going on? Read more here

Spending decisions are becoming more deliberate. Consumers are prioritizing essentials, scrutinizing price differences across channels and increasingly choosing where and how to pay based on perceived value. The persistence of value-driven behavior is reinforced by savings data from the PYMNTS Intelligence Paycheck-to-Paycheck reports. Savings rates remain thin, leaving many households without meaningful buffers even as inflation cools. For these consumers, slower price growth does not translate into financial comfort, at least for the moment. Read more here

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

Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity

The Clop ransomware gang has stolen the data of nearly 3.5 million University of Phoenix (UoPX) students, staff, and suppliers after breaching the university's network in August… "We believe that the unauthorized third-party obtained certain personal information, including names and contact information, dates of birth, social security numbers, and bank account and routing numbers with respect to numerous current and former students, employees, faculty and suppliers was accessed without authorization," the school stated. Read more here

The British government said Friday it is investigating a “cyber incident” following news reports that hackers linked to China have gained access to thousands of confidential documents held by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Read more here

Romania's cybersecurity agency confirms a major ransomware attack on the country's water management administration has compromised around 1,000 systems, with work to remediate them still ongoing. Administrația Națională Apele Române (Romanian Waters) says its geographical information system applications servers, database servers, Windows workstations, Windows Servers, email and web servers, and domain name servers are all affected. Read more here

Positions: Alphabet, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR) , Microsoft

Digital Infrastructure

The growing field of data center developers is catering to the tech industry’s ravenous demand for computing power to build better and more widely adopted AI systems. Giants in the space from OpenAI’s Sam Altman to Nvidia Corp.’s Jensen Huang are expecting trillions of dollars in investments to flow into a years-long global AI infrastructure buildout to power a technology they think will reshape the economy. Read more here

… President Donald J. Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum to ensure America’s leadership in 6G development. The Memorandum directs immediate planning to relocate Federal systems currently using the 7.125-7.4 GHz band of spectrum so it can be cleared for full-power commercial 6G use. Read more here

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

Digital Lifestyle

In a move that sparks the end of cable TV’s control of your TV, YouTube TV has emerged as the dominant force in live TV, eclipsing the combined watch time of two of the largest traditional cable providers, Spectrum and Comcast, according to the latest Nielsen data for November 2025. This milestone underscores the accelerating migration of viewers away from legacy cable bundles toward flexible, app-based streaming services, signaling potential challenges for the old guard of the industry as digital platforms continue to redefine how Americans consume entertainment. Read more here

Kim Kardashian logged onto TikTok earlier this month and did something new: Tried to sell pajamas, slippers and matching sweat sets like the host of an old-fashioned TV infomercial… The livestream — Kardashian’s first live shopping event on TikTok for her $5 billion loungewear empire, Skims — felt like a crossover between an infomercial and a daytime talk show. Set in a winter wonderland, it featured surprise celebrity guests and a “hot Santa” urging viewers to keep buying. Roughly 30,000 people tuned in at its peak, and alerts flashed on the screen as orders rolled in. Read more here

Positions: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta

Energy Pain Point

Japan took the final step to allow the world's largest nuclear power plant to resume operations with a regional vote on Monday, a watershed moment in the country's return to nuclear energy nearly 15 years after the Fukushima disaster. Read more here

San Francisco got most of its power back after the city was hit by a widespread outage Saturday that left thousands of homes and businesses in the dark, closing stores and disrupting transit during the busy holiday shopping period. Pacific Gas and Electric Company said in a statement on X that its crew restored about 90,000 customers by 9 p.m. Saturday, with the remaining 40,000 expected to get power back overnight. Read more here

Positions: Eaton (ETN)

Guilty Pleasure

Global coffee prices rose to record highs this year, sending the cost of cappuccinos and lattes soaring. But a caffeine habit is hard to kick. So instead of giving up their daily brew, people are choosing cheaper options such as drive-through baristas or whole beans delivered to their door. Read more here

Cocoa futures almost tripled last year, inflicting pain on manufacturers, who in turn hiked chocolate prices. They’re still working through beans they bought at the top of the rally. They’ve also made recipe changes that are not easy to reverse. Producers and analysts expect cheaper cocoa to only start feeding through to supermarket aisles in the second half of next year, and even that is far from certain. That means households already stretched by pricier groceries from beef to coffee will have to keep weighing whether chocolate remains an affordable treat. Read more here

Positions: Dutch Bros (BROS)

Bullpen: The Hershey Company (HSY)

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.

More Pro Portfolio

At the time of publication, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long LH, WELL, GOOGL, AMZN, ANET, AXON, META, MSFT, NOW, SSSS, COST, TJX, CIBR, AVGO, MRVL, NVDA, QCOM, ETN and BROS.