For anybody who’s not familiar with Global X, it is very much into theme-oriented exchange traded funds. So what are the themes that have the most promise for investors in 2025?

Scott Helfstein is the head of investment strategy at Global X ETFs. I recently spoke with Helfstein about the prospects for thematic ETFs on my Money Life podcast.

“We’re going into an environment where the Fed is going to pause or slow rate cuts so we think fundamentals are really, really important. So we like themes that have strong fundamentals, perhaps even better forecast than the S &P and that are tied to this competitiveness story,” Helfstein said,

“First and foremost, you have to talk about artificial intelligence. It’s impacting everything we do. It’s impacting everything from entertainment, all the way to construction, insurance, so many different parts of the economy.”

“And ultimately, it’s gonna help to drive corporate competitiveness and global competitiveness. So we like the AI providers in terms of the software, but we also like infrastructure around areas like data centers.”

The energy sector will also offer opportunity, and maybe in some place people wouldn’t normally think of, Helfstein said.

“One of the big Trump trades, if you will, has been a positive view on the energy sector. In particular, we like energy infrastructure, like MLPs, but then we also like in the thematic growth and disruption vein to think about uranium and nuclear power, for example, as one of the ways these data centers are going to get their incremental power,” he said.

“And you could take something like U.S. infrastructure, again, an area that’s performed really well the last couple years, still backed by a lot of government spending through the IIJA Act, something in the neighborhood of $500 billion to $700 billion still to be both allocated and spent. And all of that’s going to go to the developers of the infrastructure, and not necessarily the asset owners.”

For more investing ideas from Scott Helfstein, listen to the full interview

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