Apple Tumbles To ETFlash Crash Levels, Saved (For Now) By Another Tim Cook Hail Mary Announcement
Apple's shares broke below $100 in pre-market trading as analyst downgrades and further component producer outlook reductions weighed heavily on the "no brainer." It appears increasingly likely that Tim Cook's "rescue" email to Cramer on August was perhaps not the entire truth.. and the market is trading back to levels it first crossed in August 2014 (i.e. unchanged in 16 months). Of course, amid this carnage this morning, AAPL attempted to save the day and issued a quick statement proclaiming January 1st as the biggest App Store spending day in history... for now the stock is not excited about that.
Following our reports of FoxConn's hiring freeze in November 9which was ignored by all the talking heads), and confirming Nikkei's recent report of a 30% production cut in iPhones, this morning's headlines are not helping...
- Hit 1: *CATCHER TECHNOLOGY SAYS APPLE SLOWDOWN SEEN HITTING 1H: NIKKEI
- Hit 2: *APPLE CUT TO NEUTRAL VS BUY AT ROSENBLATT
Stock tumbles below $100...
Then saved: *APPLE SAYS JAN. 1 WAS BIGGEST DAY IN APP STORE HISTORY
But it's not lasting.
* * *
However, things just do not add up the way that Tim Cook said they were...
Here is what Tim Cook told Jim Cramer via email at the peak of the panic in August:
"I get updates on our performance in China every day, including this morning, and I can tell you that we have continued to experience strong growth for our business in China through July and August. Growth in iPhone activations has actually accelerated over the past few weeks, and we have had the best performance of the year for the App Store in China during the last 2 weeks."
As we asked at the peak of the panic in August, So did Tim Cook lie?
If one uses channel check data to objectively determine end demand, the answer is a resounding yes. To be sure, Cook may be telling the truth in a very narrow sense, if Apple is simply be resorting to the oldest trick in the book at this point: channel stuffing.
The problem with channel stuffing is that it only allows you to mask the problem for 2-3 quarters at which unless there has been a dramatic improvement in the end-demand picture, it re-emerges that much more acutely: just ask AOL which was channel stuffing for months on end, only to be ultimately exposed, leading to a epic plunge in the stock price.
It all depends on China: if the world's most populous nation can get its stock market, its economy and its currency under control, then this too shall pass. The problem is that if, as many increasingly suggest, China has lost control of all three. At that point anyone who thought they got a great deal when buying AAPL at $92 will have far better opportunities to dollar-cost average far, far lower.
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He explained I suckered some idiots
Cook should follow in Musk’s and Bezo’s footsteps and start building iPhone-shaped rockets. ;-)
Looney
… ideal for use as a dildo.
I've seen this movie before, and I know how it ends. This time the only difference is, Steve left the company in much better shape; instead of leaving a flagship product line with 10% market share of a 2-product market, he left one with a leading market share in a highly fragmented market (and a dominant profit share). So Apple's post-Jobs decline this time around will be more gradual, but directionally, exactly the same.
I really don't understand why Jobs left the fudge-packer in charge, though. The fudge-packer lifestyle is a big distraction, demanding a lot of time and energy, from an executive who already has his hands more than full; Jobs was smart enough to understand this. But fudge-packers are generally quite good at playing office politics, and my guess is Cook took advantage of Jobs' declining health to insinuate himself into his current position.
What a great day. Thanks ZH for posting so many great articles...how am I supposed to go to work?
we're getting to the point where even companies have their own version of the PPT, chipotle does big buyback after getting crushed, apple spews rainbow unicorn bullshit to trick the retarded sheep back into their dazed graze. who knows how much longer the plates can be kept spinning in the air.
LMAO. Keep the faith, brother!
another year of buggering for Tim...
Sold out yesterday. Fucking waste, all those paper profits will be gone soon.
Lower the price of all those overpriced iDevices by $150 would be a good start.
I'm waiting for Carl Ichan's mea culpa.
don't worry about cook. he got plenty.
Let me think? Why, there's an App for that?
Seriously, Apple makes good products but as incomes are shifted toward more necessary stuff, Apple's product cost will seem quite high to many. + carriers are moving away from the discount phone thing.
He likes a cock up his ass, and is gonna give his shareholders a cock up their asses..
Timmy has a penchant for "a baby's arm holding an Apple."
Cock is such a vulgar fucking term.
How about moist pussy?
Please. No sticking your head in a toilet.
how about a rainforest
Fuckin' A, Fee Waybill...!!!
They (apple) are starting to look and sound desperate.....
Maybe it's time to start putting some of that $200B in cash to work.
As Cook dangles a rotting life raft off the ship for the investors treading water...
So...how are the Watch and iPad Pro doing? How about that enterprise partnership with IBM? I was pissed I didn't sell at the top, but glad I got out ~$117. Just ride the waves.
after some fool died tumbling from a cliff a few days ago; cook created the iFell
the Android ecosystem is going to destroy Apple, it's inevitable...
Delirious drivel.
I'm sure glad I hung onto my still in the box LuanLi computer case and Cougar SX power supply. Now I can build that Linux box I've been thinking about when Apple gets desperate and starts piling on more mistakes. Thanks to Steve Jobs for a wonderful 10 years of great visionary products, but I don't think there is anyone to step in now to save Apple. Steve himself was probably shaking his head thinking about it, not long before his departure. RIP Steve.
Just look at the MacBook: a computer with 1 non-standard port. That is all you need to see.
Apple: The dongle company.
You are forced to buy new cables/docks/dongles, when a new product is released. Obsessed with small/thin products. The smaller/thinner it is, the less functionality it has. Soon, you will pay $3,000 and Apple will ship you a box containing a sheet of paper, that will read:
SEE HOW THIN IT IS!? IT DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, BUT BOY IS IT THIN!!
Maybe they can make an iCar to burn some cash. If they sell the equivalent of 1 year VW production with the amount that Tesla loses for every car, the 200 billion is all gone in a single year. This is not taken inflation into account.
Q: Why are there so many Steve Jobs movies?
A: Because Apple consumers are used to buying the same thing over and over again.
Not anymore. Sorry Apple shit-hit-the-fanboys.
Just kidding. Don't sell your stock. Apple could be the next Blackberry! =)
Ok, I was really just kidding about the 'sorry' part.
Trading on inside information is only illegal if you make a profit from it.
Tyler, your hate for the only decent behemoth company in the world today is pointless. You obviously don't understand cycles on WallSt and the business of Apple Inc. But hey, you're not alone. Pathetic.
Yeah, I guess people who don't hold a declining stock are too stupid to understand. People who hold securities which are rising are such idiots.
No, it's the contrary. Buy low, sell high. Up to the trader's execution. All the rest is FUCKING NARRATIVES, just like the majority of the BS spewed by Tylers of late. But hey, that what journalists do. They SELL words and narratives. Usually witha fucking BIAS.
Apparently my initial impression of you was incorrect. Agree completely attachment to bias can be deadly. But that doesn't make toying with fanboys any less delightful.
It's a tough business and Samsung is a tough competitor...but that doesn't mean Apple sucks. They (Jobs) created the whole industry and will always have a slice.
They opted for a closed architecture compared to Samsungs open model. It boils down to platform stability vs "open source"...wildly different business models.
Unfortunately for Apple, Millennials hate the close platform model. It seems inevitable that Samsung will prevail...but the next insanely great thing will come from America...count on that...and some asian behemoth will end up with the market when it moves towards being a commodity.
The facade of profitability...
If you want to do some basic technical analysis on Aapl shares draw a long term trendline from the April 2003 low up across the previous bottoms. You'll see Aapl's price recently penetrated that trendline to the downside, briefly turned up to test it from below, touched it, then failed and has since declined from there.
This is a textbook example of what you do not want to see a stock you hold do. For those annoyed by Aapl fanboys it's a sight to behold. Fanboys will disregard this post because they like having their trendline bottoms penetrated.
It's a 20-year 'generational' thing (the irony...) Gotta go back to when it was $8/share and Bill Gates offered up some $$$ to keep the company afloat... That could happen again ya know... Shit goes back & forth.
'Channel Stuffing'...?
'Catcher technology'...? (who's the 'Pitcher'...?)
Someone's going to be able to pick up an almost complete stationary spaceship cheap.
How about some GOOD news?
Check this out...
Forbes 30 Under 30: Young energy entrepreneurs to watch, including a few Texans Posted on January 5, 2016 | By Joshua CainForbes Magazine’s latest list of entrepreneurs under 30 includes a few Texans among those to watch bringing changes to the energy industry.
The magazine is honoring 600 total individuals across 20 different lists of industries for its fifth annual “30 Under 30” list.
Of the 30 entrepreneurs who made the list for energy, just five are developing solutions for the oil and gas industry. Among them, two are focused on helping drilling engineers improve subsurface operations. The founders of NUD Geochemical, based out of Austin, have created a service that uses x-ray fluorescence and high-resolution scanning to determine the mineral makeup of rock layers encountered by a driller. And the founder of Tachyus developed software that helps operators determine where and how to drill.
The list also includes four Texans. One, a 19-year-old from Friendswood, engineered a subsea wellhead capable of capturing oil and gas from a well blow out after watching the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a high school student.
For more Texans who are changing the world, see Forbes’ other lists here.
How is the trashing of Apple stock not good news?
The smart money doesn't give a fuck about the app store - it's an insignificant pocket change portion of revenue. They must be getting desperate if that's the best they can do. Personally, I would announce a trillion dollar 3% 100-year bond issuance to be used exclusively for equity buybacks. Apple is fucked on a 5-10 year timeframe anyway so they might as well rip off stupid fixed-income investors some moar & ramp the stock up to $100k/sh before it craters.