Subject: Wall Street’s new darling: The HALO trade
Wall Street’s Latest Bet Is on ‘HALO’ Companies With AI Immunity

Deere and McDonald’s have become darlings to investors worried about broad AI disruption

After a three-year love affair with anything related to artificial intelligence, U.S. investors are flocking to the factory owners, fast-food restaurants and commodity companies that have seemingly strong odds of surviving the technological revolution intact.

Call it the AI immunity trade, HALO—for “heavy assets, low obsolescence”—or just another iteration of the jitters that have periodically rippled through markets since the AI investing boom began. The winners include McDonald’s, Exxon Mobil and tractor maker Deere. Left behind are the perceived potential victims of the AI revolution, a list that has ranged from wealth managers to software firms.

In the past month, the S&P 500 sectors for industrials, materials, utilities and consumer staples have surged ahead of the overall index, while information technology has slid and the Magnificent Seven tech giants—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla)—have languished. Through Feb. 20, the index’s consumer-staples sector has notched its best year-to-date performance on record.

https://www.wsj.com/finance/st...

That must be why my port keeps going up. I didn’t jump into the fast hype AI vision, the Saul’s SaaS, or the rest - mostly because I’m too slow nowadays ;) So my list of old, stodgy stalwarts keeps improving, even as the new “it girl” stocks find reasons to crater.