Thematic Reads: Week of January 13, 2020
Each week Team Tematica consumes a voracious amount of content as we look to stay on top of the latest data and mine it for tailwind and headwind signals for our 10 investment themes.
Aging of the Population
The global demographic shift towards a more senior population
- The Gym of the Future: Senior Citizens, Small Talk, No Sweat (The Wall Street Journal)
- The End of Retirement (The Wall Street Journal)
- Social Security’s not keeping up with inflation (MarketWatch)
Cleaner Living
Growing demand for items that claim to be better for you and the planet:
- Beyond Meat, Roquette ink multi-year supply agreement (MarketWatch)
- Best sustainable tech at CES 2020 (Mashable)
- The Dark Side of ‘Compostable’ Take-Out Containers (Eater)
Digital Infrastructure
The Buildout and upgrading of our Networks, Data Storage Facilities, and Equipment
- Cloud gaming streaming to highlight 5G services in 2020 (DigiTimes)
- New in-store technologies took center stage at the National Retail Federation’s annual Big Show (Business Insider)
- AT&T to Install FirstNet, 5G at Nellis Air Force Base (Light Reading)
Disruptive Innovators
Business models designed to transform an entire industry and leap-frog over incumbents.
- Visa’s Plaid Takeover Signals Wave of Fintech Deal Making (Bloomberg)
- Senators Propose $1B to Outpace Huawei in 5G (Wired)
- Coral is Google’s quiet initiative to enable AI without the cloud (The Verge)
Digital Lifestyle
The increasingly digital landscape that now underpins the entire consumer experience.
- Mobile Apps Made $310 Billion in 2019 En Route to Bigger 2020 (Bloomberg)
- Cord Cutting 2.0 May Be the Death of Comcast, Spectrum, & More (Cord Cutters News)
The products and services people will consume no matter the economic environment.
- Coffee Bean Prices Highest Since 2017 As Demand-Supply Gap Widens (Yahoo! Finance)
- Asia’s Chocolate Craving Seen Driving Boom in Cocoa Processing (Bloomberg | Quint)
Those things that bridge the gap between want and ability at every socioeconomic level.
- Mercedes-Benz Beats BMW, Audi to Keep Luxury-Car Sales Crown (Bloomberg)
- Should European Luxury Houses Focus on China More than the US? (Jing Daily)
- Luxury 2030: The Rise of the Personal Luxury Experiences (Jing Daily)
Consumers trading down when and where possible or looking to stretch the disposable dollars they do have.
- Buying a new house may now be easier for millennials as more starter homes get built (USA Today)
- Target cuts fourth-quarter growth forecast after weak Christmas sales (FT)
Areas around the world where rising disposable incomes are driving demand for a host of products and services.
- Jeff Bezos promises $1bn Amazon investment in India (FT)
- High food inflation in India is forcing families to choose between good meals and education (Quartz)
- Asia’s Chocolate Craving Seen Driving Boom in Cocoa Processing (Bloomberg | Quint)
Reflecting the evolving needs across individual, cyber, corporate and homeland security.
- App tracking alert in iOS 13 has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry (AppleInsider)
- Hackers on the other side of the world can take control of your vehicle (USA Today)
- Smart Speakers Get New Scrutiny Ahead of U.K. Government Report (Bloomberg)
- City of Las Vegas said it successfully avoided devastating cyber-attack (ZD Net)
- Travelex staff go back to basics as ransomware cripples systems (Reuters)
What Else We Are Loving
Other reads, experiences, products, services and the like that we enjoyed so much this past week we just had to share
- We’re generally not a selfish lot here at Tematica, but even we were impressed with the efforts displayed by Jay Coulter, the Resilient Advisor, to wrangle Tematica’s Chris Versace and Lenore Hawkins together to kick off a live stream and podcast special series on thematic investing. Click here to view the program, and here team Tematica talk not only about the book Cocktail Investing but also our Foxberry Tematica Research Cybersecurity & Data Privacy and Tematica Research Thematic Dividend All Stars indices.
