Recent Signals and Tematica Model Confirmation Points
Examining recent targeted exposure model confirmation points
We’re back with a fresh set of ripped from the headlines confirmation points and signals for not only our targeted exposure and thematic strategies, but also our Digital Infrastructure & Connectivity model and the AI & Data Center Model Suite.
Feast away!
Aging of the Population
According to a study by CareScout the 65-plus population is on track to hit 82 million in the next 25 years. There are currently around 60 million. Many states across the country aren’t prepared to handle a population aging this fast… One major factor that stood out is the lack of nurses. CareScout estimates a shortfall of 63,000 registered nurses by 2030. Read more here
Projections from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the nation’s centenarian population is set to quadruple over the next 30 years. The increase in longevity stems from advancements in modern medicine, above-average quality of life and a growing awareness of healthy lifestyles and habits. But the tendency to live longer also presents new and complex challenges, including how to care for a vulnerable demographic that, in a society that prizes independence and the able-bodied, is often cast aside or left to navigate aging largely on its own, experts say. Read more here
Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic’s artificial-intelligence tool Claude was used in the U.S. military’s operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, highlighting how AI models are gaining traction in the Pentagon, according to people familiar with the matter. Read more here
According to Zscaler ThreatLabz’ 2026 AI Security Report, there is a massive rise in enterprise AI adoption. The researchers analyzed around 1 trillion AI/ML transactions for 2025, which show a 91% year‑over‑year increase. AI has effectively become core infrastructure within organizations, consistently active across workflows, tools, and business processes. Read more here
Albertsons Cos. Inc., Target Corp., and Williams-Sonoma Inc. announced they are now testing ad placements in ChatGPT through an early pilot with OpenAI, as retailers explore AI as a new retail media channel… Since the pilot’s announcement, a handful of advertisers have signed on, including Adobe, Amazon’s Audible and HelloFresh. Agency partners are also getting involved. WPP Media said it’s working with brands such as Ford, Mazda, Mrs. Meyer’s and Audemars Piguet to test placements. Meanwhile, Dentsu and Omnicom said they intend to bring client campaigns into ChatGPT. Albertsons, Target and Williams-Sonoma are the latest to announce their participation. Read more here
U.S. artificial intelligence company Anthropic opened its first office in India on Monday amid a surge of AI usage in the country, saying its revenue in the market has doubled since October on an annualized basis. The new office in the southern city of Bengaluru is Anthropic’s second in Asia after Tokyo. The move comes as the battle for AI users in India heats up, thanks in large part to American and European companies venturing into new markets in pursuit of rapid growth. Read more here
Cash-Strapped Consumer
The herd in this case refers to the U.S. cattle population, which recently hit a 75-year low. Steak prices have shot 55% higher over the past five years, and ground beef, 69%. These American staples might not weigh on household budgets like car insurance and electricity, but they are frequent cost-of-living reminders to any grocery shopper or restaurant diner. Read more here
After holding the line on prices for several months, companies—big and small—have begun a new round of increases, in some cases by high-single-digit percentage points. Companies had raised prices last year after tariffs hoisted costs. Yet starting in the fall, many firms held off on increases and sometimes offered discounts to capture holiday shoppers. The pricing break is over. Many companies typically raise prices at the start of the new year. Yet increases appeared to be stronger than normal for January for electronics, appliances and other durable goods… Read more here
Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity
Hackers have stolen the personal and contact information of nearly 1 million accounts after breaching the systems of Figure Technology Solutions, a self-described blockchain-native financial technology company. Founded in 2018, Figure uses the Provenance blockchain for lending, borrowing, and securities trading, and has unlocked over $22 billion in home equity with over 250 partners, including banks, credit unions, fintechs, and home improvement companies. Read more here
German rail operator Deutsche Bahn on Wednesday said it had been targeted by a cyberattack that disrupted its digital services. The company said a so-called DDoS attack hit its IT systems around midday Tuesday, causing outages in travel information and booking tools on its website and in the Navigator app. Read more here
Hackers are using ransomware to accelerate the timeline for cyberattacks, moving on average four times faster than just a year ago, according to an incident response report released Tuesday by Palo Alto Networks. AI is being used for reconnaissance, phishing and scripting, and operational execution in many cases. In the most efficient attacks, groups exfiltrate data just 72 minutes after initial access. Identity is a primary element in attacks, showing up in 90% of incident response cases. Read more here
A single quantum-enabled cyberattack on a major U.S. bank could trigger trillions of dollars in economic damage, according to a new study by the Citi Institute, reframing quantum computing from a distant research concern into an immediate financial stability risk. In a report, analysts at Citi Group estimate that a one-day disruption to a top-five U.S. bank’s access to the Fedwire Funds Service — the real-time payment system operated by the Federal Reserve — could generate $2 trillion to $3.3 trillion in indirect economic losses, equivalent to 10% to 17% of U.S. gross domestic product. Read more here
As AI adoption surges toward a trillion annual enterprise transactions, IT leaders now face an attack surface expanding faster than traditional security models can contain. With nearly 40% of AI activity being blocked due to data‑exposure risks, the stakes for governing AI securely have never been higher. Read more here
Digital Infrastructure
Sony Group Corp. is now considering pushing back the debut of its next PlayStation console to 2028 or even 2029, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking. That would be a major upset to a carefully orchestrated strategy to sustain user engagement between hardware generations. Close rival Nintendo Co., which contributed to the surplus demand in 2025 after its new Switch 2 console drove storage card purchases, is also contemplating raising the price of that device in 2026, people familiar with its plans said. Read more here
Texas is poised to become the world’s largest data center market by 2030, overtaking Virginia, according to a new report from JLL. “Frontier markets” such as Texas, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Ohio are experiencing “explosive” growth, JLL’s North America Data Center Report Year-end 2025 said. JLL defines frontier markets as those outside of traditional mature hubs like Northern Virginia, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Silicon Valley. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of all US data center construction is happening in these markets, driven by developers seeking power availability and business-friendly environments. Read more here
Digital Lifestyle
Airbnb is stepping up to build an AI-native app experience, making the app more than a search aggregator and turning it into an assistant for planning trips or hosting visitors.
CEO Brian Chesky said during the company’s fourth-quarter conference call that Airbnb is looking to expand the use of large language models to enhance customer experience, according to TechCrunch. Read more here
Homebuilding & Materials
“Single-family home building dipped in 2025 because of ongoing affordability challenges, fueled by high housing price-to-income ratios and elevated financing and construction costs,” says Buddy Hughes, a homebuilder and developer from Lexington, NC, and immediate past chairman of the board of the National Association of Home Builders. “NAHB expects single-family starts will move slightly higher this year, as mortgage rates are expected to moderate.” Read more here
Construction executives are warning President Donald Trump that his aggressive anti-immigration crackdown is hurting their industry, making homebuilding more expensive, and could eventually turn his voters against the GOP. Read more here
Luxury Buying Boom
Gen Zers and millennials are swimming in student debt and may never own homes, but they’re splurging on gut-healthy juices and rotisserie chickens. New York City as a whole is in the midst of an affordability crisis, one that helped elect Mayor Zohran Mamdani, yet a new crop of luxury prepared-food purveyors is drawing massive crowds in Manhattan and driving social-media discourse. Influencers fill aisles in search of trendy nut butters and overpriced salads. The stores are packed on weekends with teens who inhale frozen yogurt. Read more here
China’s personal luxury goods market is expected to return to modest growth in 2026, consultancy Bain & Company said on Thursday, but warned the recovery would be fragile and uneven across brands and categories. The mainland luxury market shrank 3% to 5% in 2025, recovering from a drop of 17% to 19% in 2024, and the consultancy forecast that the world’s second largest economy would remain a “cornerstone of luxury market growth”. Read more here
Safety & Security
The fiscal 2027 defense budget could double the number of ships the Navy is set to procure under the fiscal 2026 defense budget, Navy Secretary John Phelan said during a keynote address at the WEST Conference in San Diego, California, on Thursday. While the 2026 budget allotted $27.2 billion dollars for the Navy to build 17 ships, Phelan said President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2027 defense budget of $1.5 trillion could bump that number up to at least 34, with a large contingent of auxiliary and support ships. Read more here
The Knoxville Police Department is utilizing two new artificial intelligence-powered translation devices so officers can have conversations with people who do not speak English or are hard of hearing during time-sensitive investigations… According to the department, the translation devices are an essential tool during time-sensitive investigations that require reliable, accurate communication. Read more here
A police department in Connecticut is testing new bodycam technology that will help officers communicate with people who speak different languages. The chief of the Norwalk Police Department says the cameras use AI technology which is already making interactions safer and smoother. Read more here
The Pentagon wants sensors that can detect small drones threatening military installations across the United States. And it wants them fast. Read more here
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 Consumers - 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.
Cloud Computing – Companies that provide hardware and services that enhance the cloud computing experience for users, such as co-location, security, and edge computing.
Core Holdings – Companies that reflect economic activity and are large enough to not get pushed around by day-to-day market trends. Low-beta, large-cap names able to better withstand economic turmoil.
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 - Companies that are integral to the development and the buildout of the infrastructure that supports our increasingly connected world.
Digital Lifestyle - The companies behind our increasingly connected lives.
Digital Payments - Companies benefitting from the accelerating structural adoption of digital payments and financial technology (FinTech).
EPS Diplomats - Profitable large capitalization companies proven to produce above-average EPS growth and provide investors with the benefit of multiple expansion.
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.
Market Hedge Model – This basket of daily reset swap-based broad market inverse ETFs protects in the face of market pullbacks, overbought market technicals, and other drivers of market volatility.
Nuclear Energy & Uranium – Companies that either build and maintain nuclear power plants or are involved in the production of uranium.
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.
Space Economy – Companies that focus on the launch and operation of satellite networks.
The Strategies Behind Our Dividend Income Models
Monthly Dividend Model – Pretty much what the name indicates – this model invests in companies that pay monthly dividends to shareholders.
ETF Dividend Model – High-yielding ETFs that provide a range of exposures from domestic equities, international equities, emerging market equities, MLPS, and REITs.
ETF Enhanced Dividend Model – A group of high-yielding ETFs that utilize options to enhance yield through collecting option income.
Don’t be a stranger
Thanks for reading and if you have a suggestion for an article or book we should read, or a stream we should catch, email us at info@tematicaresearch.com. The same email works if you want to know more about our thematic and targeted exposure models listed above.