AI Fee Collectors, Brazil’s Rare Earth Angle, and Oil Refiners Head into Middle East Headwinds
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Luc Lango highlights toll roads imposed by AI… Brian Hunt highlights the overlooked AI angle in Brazil… Louis Navellier refinery plays amid turmoil in the Middle East…
As I write Thursday morning, the biggest headline is President Trump says Iran called “a short while ago” wanting to make a deal “very badly” — just hours after the second night of US strikes.
But there are many other stories..
Memory chip maker in South Korea SK Hynix – one of the world’s newest trillion-dollar companies – is preparing to go public in the US worth $28 billion tomorrow. Demand is increasing by about seven times the available stock, which is a strong signal for AI memory trading.
Meanwhile, on the economic front, initial jobless claims this morning came in at a seasonally adjusted 215,000, above expectations and lower than the previous week. It’s another sign of a steady labor market — and a data point that Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh will take into account.
We can spend this digest Chase any one of those topics. Instead, we allow them to take a backseat to a different purpose…
Put some money in your pocket.
Today, let’s take a look at three investment ideas — straight from three of our top analysts.
The first is live AI play Luke Lango – Designed for when the current multi-week pullback of AI trading eventually gives way to the next stop higher.
The second is a more conservative way of riding the AI wave itself, courtesy of AI Brian Hunt -And it comes from an angle of the market that most investors don’t watch.
The third is intended for investors who are fed up with AI and just need a break from everything related to the technology and its recent fluctuations. It’s a trade from a legendary investor Louis Navellieris built around one of the most overlooked side effects of the conflict in the Middle East.
Let’s get into it.
Luc Lango: “AI has just joined payroll”
Luke, our technology and innovation expert and magazine editor Innovation investorsignals a shift that most investors believe is underestimating. Artificial Intelligence is moving from a tool used by people to recruitment companies.
This is the shift to “agent” AI that we have been tracking here at digest For several months.
To illustrate, Luke highlights Calci, a prediction market platform. It has an internal AI agent named “Harrison” that does analyst-like work — tracking news, monitoring competitors, drafting contract language, and helping solve markets.
In terms of investment opportunities, here’s Luke explaining why this is important in the computing build process:
The AI agent is different.
Give it a goal, and it gets to work — planning, executing, verifying its output, calling tools, querying databases, reviewing, and repeating until the task is complete.
This continuous loop consumes inference computation on a much larger scale.
This reference to the “calculation of inference” is where we find the opportunity.
Luke points to Gartner estimates that agentic AI workflows consume 5X to 30X more code per task than one-shot generative AI queries. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs expects the number of monthly agent AI tokens to reach nearly 120 quadrillion by 2030.
Luke’s takeaway for investors:
Follow the account, and you will find the trade.
It doesn’t matter which application wins, which organization deploys the most proxies, or which model – GPT, Claude, Gemini, or Llama – powers them.
What matters is that each proxy sends traffic through the same physical infrastructure stack. This stack is limited, expensive to build, and is currently being expanded to its limits.
Each layer collects a different type of fee.
Locke divided “toll roads” into several categories – like accelerators nvidia (NVDA),networks and custom silicon such as doctrine (CRDO)such as memory sandisk (Your support)Servers and energy such as del(Dale)such as visual contact coherent (COHR)And storage.
For our purpose today, I’ll highlight one of Luke’s “storage” stocks: Ever Pure (p).
AI customers need fast retrieval from large data sets, and Locke says storage is where that need first arises. And here he is with more:
Everpure in particular has gained strength beneath the surface.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2027, product revenues rose 55%, while subscription services accounted for 45% of total revenues.
Operating profits jumped more than 90% year over year to reach $159 million.
His broader point is that as agents’ workloads increase, storage is no longer a side character in the AI story; It is a structural beneficiary. It is quietly brewing while market attention remains focused on chips.
Luke’s closing thought is interesting. While we wrote a lot Summaries On the economic incentive for firms to shift from a human workforce to an agent workforce to take advantage of lower labor costs, Locke points out the parallel:
Once AI joins payroll, computing becomes the new labor cost.
The companies supplying accelerators, networking, memory, servers, storage, power, cooling and connectivity behind this shift are not side bets on AI. They are trade.
It will be interesting to watch how expensive this new computational “labor cost” becomes – and how that shapes agentic AI commerce.
In the meantime, specifically AI shares Which Luke officially recommended Innovation investor, Click here to learn more.
Brian Hunt: Brazil is the AI business that no one is talking about
Following Luke’s look at the infrastructure layer behind AI agents, our next opportunity comes from Brian, editor of our free daily newsletter Money and mega trends It takes the story of AI infrastructure to an unexpected place…
Brazil.
in Tuesday issue of Money and mega trends, Brian argues iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ) It is set to continue to rise, and the global AI infrastructure boom is part of the reason why.
He points out that Brazil is a commodity superpower – and commodities are the backbone of the AI build that most investors ignore.
Here he explains:
Brazil is the beneficiary of a historic spending boom on AI infrastructure…
Brazil’s massive river network also makes it a giant hydroelectric power producer. This makes it an attractive destination for power-hungry AI data centers.
Brazil also has large reserves of rare earth elements. The demand for these raw materials is increasing thanks to the growing demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure, robotics and defense technology.
Brian has been tracking the price action for several months. He first referenced Brazilian stocks in September, and here’s how that call played out:
Shortly after my September note, Brazilian stocks appeared – in the form of the iShares Brasil ETF (EWZ) – rose by 38% in less than seven months.
It then saw a normal, healthy bull market correction from mid-April to mid-June.
Now, he says, that correction is over as EWZ looks poised to continue its uptrend.
It’s a reminder that AI business isn’t limited to chips and data centers. Somewhere down the supply chain, it passes through the rare earths, hydropower, and raw materials that make the entire construction process physically possible – and Brian believes Brazil is right in the middle of that chain.
Brian writes: If you like EWZ Money and mega trends Every day the market is open, it highlights these types of opportunities before they become front-page news – and it’s 100% free.
Its issues are loaded with trend analysis, actionable tips, and plenty of specific pointers. You can subscribe here.
Louis Navellier: A trade that has nothing to do with artificial intelligence
To complete today’s lineup, let’s turn to Lewis, editor Growth investor. Two weeks ago, he recommended a trade that is aging well – US oil refineries.
Louis made this call while the ceasefire was still in place. Now that oil has collapsed, the shortages and refining margin losses he referred to seem likely to continue.
In support of this, volatile crude oil prices often pressure energy companies from both directions…
The rise in crude oil impacts refiners’ feedstock costs — the price they pay for the crude oil they’re about to turn into diesel and jet fuel — before they can pass on the increase. A decline in crude oil does the opposite harm: it reduces the value of the crude oil they already hold in storage and pipelines.
But for now, refiners are generating strong compensation: some of the strongest refining margins in years.
Here’s Lewis to explain why:
Conflict in the Middle East has created shortages and increased demand for American energy products.
This has prompted refiners to increase production of diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products – and helped achieve some of their strongest refining margins in years.
The numbers back it up. In the first quarter, the 3-2-1 industry index – essentially a snapshot of refinery profitability – jumped 73% on average.
One company riding that tailwind — Lewis’ Choice — is… Phillips 66 (PSX)a diversified energy giant that touches nearly every part of the fuel supply chain. It includes 12 U.S. refineries, more than 70,000 miles of pipeline, thousands of branded and co-branded fuel outlets, and a growing renewable fuels business.
This diversification was shown directly in the company’s first quarter results. Lewis highlights how Phillips 66 posted adjusted earnings of $200 million, or $0.49 per share — which beats Wall Street estimates of a loss of $0.39 per share.
Analysts have since revised their consensus estimates 60% higher over the past three months, and now expect second-quarter earnings to rise 179% year over year, to $6.64 per share, compared to $2.38 per share in the same quarter last year.
Now, Lewis made this recommendation on June 26, his recommendation Growth investor The number of subscribers has already increased by 11%. This has pushed PSX above its $180 purchase price — and the stock is trading at roughly $189 as I write.
But keep watching here. Any real de-escalation in the Middle East would likely ease shortages that push up refining margins, which could drag the PSX lower – potentially back into Lewis’ buying range.
Either way, PSX is a reminder that AI isn’t the only game out there right now. Sometimes the most interesting opportunity is old-fashioned energy infrastructure, which receives tailwinds from a completely different story.
If you want more from Lewis, he has his sights set on July 23 — exactly two weeks from today — when second-quarter earnings begin.
In his latest show, he dives into what he wants Precursor intelligence The system – or PI for short – is now being excavated. Lewis designed it to help him identify the next direction for institutional money, before the rest of Wall Street catches up. This is the lens through which he will position himself for second-quarter earnings.
You can get more details here — as well as several stocks that his system says could be next in line as institutional money makes its next move.
wrap
No big analysis of today’s headlines – just three thoughts to consider from some of our best analysts…
- AI infrastructure trading designed for recovery,
- Amnesty International’s conservative angle that runs through Brazil,
- And the energy game that rides the tailwind has nothing to do with artificial intelligence at all.
Given our analysts’ track records, each is worth a good look if you’re thinking about investing money in the business today.
I wish you a good evening,
Jeff Remsburg
(Disclaimer: I own COHR)
