FactSet

The AI infrastructure landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, shifting from a GPU-dominated build-out to a more balanced CPU-GPU ecosystem. It is driven by the rise of agentic AI workloads that demand far more sequential, CPU-intensive orchestration than traditional model training ever did.

FactSet Utilities has consistently ranked Connecticut as one of the least productive regulatory jurisdictions in the United States. The degree of this dysfunction became more pronounced in the latter stages of former Commission Chair Marissa Gillett’s tenure. Gillett was appointed to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) in 2019 by Governor Ned Lamont, marking a departure from a historically less-contentious, more consensus-driven regulatory regime.

A portfolio manager asking a simple question—“Which positions drove active risk this quarter and why?”—may require data from multiple systems to perform attribution, analyze factor exposures and benchmarks, review market events, reconcile calculations, and manually piece together insights before they can be shared with clients or presented to a risk committee. Although the intelligence already exists within the organization, the challenge is connecting it together.

There’s no longer such a thing as “the U.S. ETF Market” as the client use cases and behaviors have diverged significantly. All investors seek positive returns, but their time horizons and strategies are dramatically different. The longest-term investors rely on research that points to the odds-on play of buying and holding broad-based, cap-weighted stock and bond ETFs. Other investors extrapolate recent performance with hopes to continue riding a wave.

At this late stage of the earnings season, the (blended) revenue growth rate for the S&P 500 for Q2 is 15.0%. If 15.0% is the actual growth rate for the quarter, it will mark the highest revenue growth rate reported by the index since Q4 2021 (16.1%). However, the Q2 revenue growth rate for the S&P 500 has been increasing over a longer period. On March 31, the estimated revenue growth rate for Q2 was 9.5%. On June 30, the estimated revenue growth rate for Q2 was 12.2%.

U.S.-listed ETFs closed July with $15.7 trillion in total assets under management, unchanged vs. the end of June. Monthly net fund flows decelerated slightly, with $193.2 billion in new assets added in July, which is down 1.4% from June. This modest activity reflected the challenging July for the broader U.S. equity market with the S&P 500 Index down 0.14%. In terms of monthly flows, new money was added to each asset class.

With 74% of companies in the STOXX Europe 600 having reported their second-quarter results, FactSet data show aggregate net-income growth of 19.1% on a reported basis (19.0% median). Analysts note full-season expectations have now risen to more than 22%, the sharpest growth since Q3 2022. Even excluding Energy, growth remains a robust 11.5%–12%. Sales growth is running at 7.8% on a reported basis (7.7% median), still the fastest pace since 2022 despite comparatively low inflation.

At this late stage of the Q2 earnings season, the S&P 500 is reporting impressive results, even if one excludes the unusually large EPS surprises reported by Alphabet and Amazon.com. Overall, both the percentage of S&P 500 companies reporting positive earnings surprises and the magnitude of earnings surprises are above recent averages. As a result, the index is reporting higher earnings for the second quarter today relative to the end of last week and relative to the end of the quarter.

What started last week as a single data point as Chubb stepped up its purchase of reinsurance is now a four-company pattern. Last week’s report provided a heads-up that Chubb’s increased use of reinsurance, coupled with management comments, may signal softening prices and margin pressure ahead. Allstate announced yesterday a new $1 billion catastrophe reinsurance layer as a change to its program structure.

The anticipation of Q2 earnings results from the big-tech companies centered on whether skyrocketing spending on AI will be justified by sustainable returns, and it amplified fears of a possible AI market correction. The fears of insufficient return on the investments in AI are coupled with growing concerns about the rising costs to support AI growth.