Vanguard

WRITER Named Market Shaper in Gartner AI Agents Report

WRITER, an enterprise AI agent platform, was recognized as a Market Shaper in Gartner’s inaugural Emerging Market Quadrant™ for AI Agents for Marketing — Startup Vendors. The mention follows WRITER’s recent product updates, including the release of Palmyra X6 and major upgrades to WRITER Agent, plus enterprise features like Playbooks, Skills, brand controls, prebuilt connectors to major enterprise systems, and governance capabilities. Gartner defines Market Shapers as vendors with high potential for market disruption and execution. WRITER cites large enterprise customers using the platform to scale agentic marketing and revenue workflows.

S&P 500 Profit Margins Reach Record Highs

FactSet data shows the S&P 500's blended net profit margin ran at 16.9% in Q2, up from 14.8% in Q1 and 12.9% a year earlier — a level that would be the highest since FactSet began tracking margins in 2009. Alphabet and Amazon are the largest contributors: Alphabet reported a 34% operating margin and a $98 billion gain in other income, while Amazon reported $53.4 billion in other income largely tied to its Anthropic investment and a 13.7% operating margin. Even excluding those two mega-caps, the index's margin was about 15%, also a record. Eight of 11 S&P 500 sectors showed year-over-year margin improvements, led by technology, communication services, consumer discretionary and energy. Vanguard economist Adam Schickling attributed the margin strength to strong demand and operating leverage, while noting competitive pressure in tech could pose future risks.

Earnings Shake Up 'Magnificent Seven' Investment Thesis

This CNBC analysis explains how recent earnings reports fractured the investment thesis around the 'Magnificent Seven' tech stocks. Vanguard data shows the S&P 500 has outperformed the Mag 7 year-to-date, and investors are rotating into a broader set of infrastructure, energy and chip companies inside an "AI complex" that has roughly doubled in value this year. Individual members of the Mag 7 are diverging: Microsoft reported strong Azure growth, Meta raised spending forecasts and disappointed investors, Alphabet missed EPS while boosting capex, and Amazon raised its capex outlook. The article highlights differentiated performance across Apple, Nvidia and Tesla and notes rising competition in AI chips and shifts in capital allocation among major cloud and AI players.