Sustainable Impact Investing is gaining traction not only with Argus Research clients but also with the global investment community. As assets have flowed in over the past 40 years, Sustainable Investing has evolved. The discipline, originally known as Socially Responsible Investing, first focused on excluding companies that conducted business in South Africa, or participated in industries such as tobacco, alcohol, and firearms. In time, the list of industries to avoid increased to include soft drinks, fast food, and oil and gas, among numerous others. Performance of initial strategies lagged, and the approach has been modified. Now, instead of merely identifying industries to avoid, the discipline promotes "sustainable" business practices across all industries that can have an "impact" on global issues such as climate, hunger, poverty, disease, shelter, and workers' rights. Given the strategy's focus on leading management practices, we expect the growth curve for Sustainable Investing to again slope upward in the years ahead.

AI is helping companies in the Industrial sector, and those same companies are helping AI. We hear a lot of talk about the technology supporting AI (such as data centers and high-speed chips). For its part, the Industrial sector is full of names supporting AI growth by supplying the energy, infrastructure, transport, and construction needed to build out new AI-focused facilities. Meanwhile, Industrial companies are harnessing AI technology to help with processes, inventory control, and supply-chain management, and many other functions. Indeed, Industrial companies are using smart robots to manage and work production lines at manufacturing facilities, while AI also is helping to make front and back offices operate more efficiently and cost effectively. We are running a five-part webinar series on AI, looking at how different industries are incorporating AI practices. We just hosted our fourth edition, spotlighting the Industrial sector. For our list this week, we are presenting the cheat sheet from the webinar – with the BUY-rated Industrial stocks we highlighted during the webinar.

Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, recently described the stock market as moving (in "Toy Story" fashion) "to infinity and beyond." On Wednesday, the major indices rose another 1.5%-2.1% and printed their second straight upside price gap, this as the AI train continues to roar down the track. Once again, the scorching semiconductor stocks led, ripping 5% higher based on the SMH and SOXX ETFs, as well as the Dow Jones Semiconductor Index. Starting from the largest players, the $5 trillion market cap NVDA rose almost 6%, TSM was up 6.4%, AMD 19%, ASML 7%, LRCX 8%, ARM 14%, and ACLS 22%.

Trane Technologies is a diversified large-cap industrial company that provides climate control solutions for buildings, homes, and transportation, including commercial heating and cooling systems, building controls, energy services and solutions, and transport refrigeration systems. Headquartered in Ireland, Trane has approximately 44,000 employees, and the shares are a component of the S&P 500.