Innovation may be hard to define. But, to borrow from former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, you know it when you see it. The United States economy is full of innovation. It has to be. Manufacturing industries that dominated the economy decades ago - textiles, televisions, even automobiles, to a large degree - have moved overseas, where costs are lower. Yet the U.S. economy, even during the pandemic and the recent period of high inflation, has expanded to record levels. If U.S. corporations weren't innovating, creating new products (such as AI and vaccines) and services (such as Zoom calls and Netflix), and moving into new markets (clean energy, rare drugs), the domestic economy would not be growing and capital would not be flooding into the country. Case in point. Consider that U.S. GDP was approximately $1 trillion in 1930 but was almost $28 trillion at the end of 2023. That's growth of almost 30-times. Meanwhile, the U.S. population has grown less than three-times during that time, to 332 million people from 120 million. The delta between the GDP growth and the population growth is, in large part, innovation. To take advantage of the key theme of innovation, Argus has identified approximately 30 companies within its universe of coverage that have been combined to form a diversified portfolio that is in our Theme Model Portfolio Series. Most of the companies in the portfolio, which is sponsored by Smart Trust Inc. as the Argus Modern Innovators Unit Investment Trust, are not start-ups but are instead mature companies. They innovate by disrupting industries, launching new products, being first to new markets, and improving existing products and processes.

Based in Houston, Texas, Targa Resources Corp. gathers and processes, and transports and sells natural gas, NGL and crude oil primarily in the Anadarko, Barnett, Eagle Ford, Permian and Williston basins. TRGP consists of two segments, Gathering and Processing and Logistics and Transportation.

U.S. stocks were mixed on Thursday as investors digested positive retail data and company earnings. Monthly spending was up 0.4% from August. The Labor Department reported that jobless claims came to 241,000, down 19,000. The Dow was up 0.4% to close at a record high, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 were nearly flat.

Targa Resources is a midstream firm that primarily operates gathering and processing assets with substantial positions in the Permian, Stack, Scoop, and Bakken plays. It has fractionation capacity at Mont Belvieu and operates a liquefied petroleum gas export terminal. The Grand Prix natural gas liquids pipeline is another important asset.