Aging of the Population
“As many as 77% of people age 50 and older want to stay in their own home as they age, but only 49% think that they will be able to do so, according to AARP. The homes people raise their families in may be too large and expensive for their needs in retirement and may also lack the modifications people might need as they get older. Renovations to make a home age-friendly can help, but there’s a limit to what can be done.” Read more here
Artificial Intelligence
“In nearly every segment of our lives, AI (artificial intelligence) now makes a significant impact: It can deliver better healthcare diagnoses and treatments; detect and reduce the risk of financial fraud; improve inventory management; and serve up the right recommendation for a streaming movie on Friday night. However, one can also make a strong case that some of AI's most significant impacts are in cybersecurity… The future for AI in cybersecurity is not all rainbows and roses, however.” Read more here
“Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said countries around the world aiming to build and run their own artificial intelligence infrastructure at home will drive up demand for his company’s products. Nations including India, Japan, France and Canada are talking about the importance of investing in “sovereign AI capabilities,” Huang said in an interview Thursday with Bloomberg Television. “Their natural resource – data – should be refined and produced for their country. The recognition of sovereign AI capabilities is global.” Read more here
“Amazon has beta launched a new generative artificial intelligence (AI)-powered shopping assistant. Dubbed “Rufus,” the assistant is now available to a small subset of customers using the Amazon mobile app and will be rolled out to more customers in the U.S. in the coming weeks…” Read more here
Artificial Intelligence and Digital Infrastructure & Connectivity
“Samsung is optimistic about a resurgence in demand for mobile devices this year. The company told investors that it anticipates the smartphone market to rebound in 2024, particularly with the rollout of new products, such as AI-powered smartphones, set “to drive an improvement in demand.” Read more here
CHIPs Act
The Biden administration is expected to award billions of dollars in subsidies to Intel (INTC), Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), and other semiconductor firms in the coming weeks for new factories. The subsidies, part of the $53 billion Chips Act, are expected to be announced before Biden's March 7 State of the Union address to Congress. Read more here
Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence
“The company’s Azure cloud business grew 30%, beating analysts’ estimates of 27%. Behind that demand has been the continuing interest in cloud AI services that Microsoft has been leaning into as part of its partnership with Open AI, the startup behind ChatGPT. Microsoft said six percentage points of Azure’s growth came from AI demand. That doubled the amount AI contributed to Azure in the previous quarter.” Read more here
“Cloud and genAI are developing an almost symbiotic relationship. Cloud technology provides the powerful, highly scalable computing capabilities needed to run gen AI large language models (LLMs). Cloud data platforms store and manage the large datasets required to process data in real-time and train genAI models. GenAI applications can then coordinate model training across services on cloud, and cloud platform security architectures can protect the sensitive information used by genAI applications.” Read more here
Consumer Inflation Fighters
“While price hikes have helped the Toblerone parent improve its profit margin through fiscal 2023, it is now starting to see softer demand as cash-strapped consumers cut back spending. The company reported organic net revenue growth of 9.8%, but volumes declined 0.4% in the quarter, joining other consumer staples firms such as McCormick (MKC) in facing the brunt of significant price increases.” Read more here
Data Privacy & Digital Identity
““China’s hackers are positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities, if or when China decides the time has come to strike,” Wray told the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Though cyber officials have long sounded the alarm about China’s offensive cyber capabilities, Wray’s dramatic public warning underlines the huge level of concern at the top of the US government about the threat Chinese hackers pose to critical infrastructure nationwide.” Read more here
Digital Identity & Data Privacy and Artificial Intelligence
“Italy's data protection authority said on Monday it told OpenAI that its artificial intelligence chatbot application ChatGPT breaches data protection rules. The Italian watchdog, known as Garante - one of the European Union's most proactive in assessing AI platform compliance with the bloc's data privacy regime - last year briefly banned ChatGPT over the alleged breach of EU privacy rules.” Read more here
Digital Infrastructure & Connectivity
“Growing demand for digital experiences means more and bigger data centres. Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft used 72 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2021, more than double their usage in 2017, according to the International Energy Agency. By 2022 these four companies accounted for nearly 80% of global hyperscale data-centre capacity. A fair chunk of the rest is in China. Several hyperscale data centres are under construction in the remote northern city of Hohhot in the region of Inner Mongolia, on tracts as large as 140 football pitches. Huawei, a Chinese tech giant and cloud provider, is among the operators, along with major state-owned companies China Telecom and China Mobile. Outside China, the pace of data-centre construction has been taxing resources to the point that some governments have felt compelled to slow it down.” Read more here
Digital Infrastructure, Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence
“As the tidal wave of expected generative AI demand unleashes a flood of new data and capacity requirements, the first weeks of the new year (and the months leading up to it) have seen an astonishing surge of announcements for data center and digital infrastructure industry financing and property investment.” Read more here
Guilty Pleasure
“Cocoa prices on Tuesday continued their 16-month-long parabolic rally, with NY cocoa posting a 46-year high nearest-futures high and London cocoa posting a record high. Cocoa prices rallied Tuesday on concern that the seasonal Harmattan winds in West Africa are more extreme than average, drying out cocoa fields and reducing yields for the Ivory Coast's mid-crop in April, threatening to reduce global cocoa production further. Lower cocoa production in the Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, is a major bullish factor for cocoa prices. Monday's government data showed Ivory Coast farmers shipped 1 MMT of cocoa to ports from October 1 to January 28, down -36% from the same time last year.” Read more here
Homebuilding & Materials
“U.S. construction spending increased more than expected in December amid a surge in single-family homebuilding, and further gains are likely as mortgage rates decline.” Read more here
Nuclear Energy & Uranium
“Global nuclear power generation is set to reach an all-time high next year, according to the latest forecasts from the International Energy Agency, marking a resurgence for the technology and boost for efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions.” Read more here
Rebuilding America
“Nonresidential building starts gained 37% in December from November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $479 billion. Manufacturing starts gained 75%, and commercial starts rose 48%, with all categories seeing sizeable gains. Institutional starts rose 22% with increases in education, public buildings, and recreation, offsetting a decline in healthcare starts.” Read more here
Safety & Security
“The Biden administration has approved the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey following the Turkish government’s ratification this week of Sweden’s membership in NATO… The State Department notified Congress of its approval of the $23 billion F-16 sale to Turkey, along with a companion $8.6 billion sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to Greece…” 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.
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.
Consumer Inflation Fighters - Companies poised to benefit as consumers stretch the disposable spending dollars they do have.
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.
Digital Infrastructure & Connectivity -The buildout and upgrading of our Networks, Data Storage Facilities, and Equipment.
Data Privacy & Digital Identity - Companies providing the tools and services that verify authorized users and safeguard personal data privacy.
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.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.
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.
Precision Ag & Agri Science – Companies that look to address shrinking arable land by helping maximize crop yields utilizing technology, science, or both.
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 says – 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.