The only good news yesterday which pushed the Nasdaq higher on the background of a generally dreary day for stocks, was AAPL's report that it had sold 9 million iPhones sending the stock soaring. This promptly resulted in a surge in the stock price, and was followed by the fawning sellside analyst crowd praising the performance of the company in an attempt to peddle even more shares to clients. One person, however, who was unimpressed was Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid, who recounts his purchase of the brand new iPhone. To say the least, it is hardly a glowing recommendation of the pent up, or any, demand for Apple's new wares, NYPD pleas to upgrade notwithstanding.
From DB's Chief Strategist Jim Reid:
As an anecdotal aside it was interesting that Apple yesterday reported above consensus iPhone sales on the first weekend of the new launches. When I upgraded in a phone shop on Friday there was no queue, a load left in stock and a number of extra staff put on who were standing around doing nothing. They said they all arrived early to handle the queues, only to find that their first customer didn't arrive until 30mins after opening. So my experience seemed to be different from the rest of the world as Apple climbed +4.97% yesterday after the impressive sales numbers and also guidance at the top of the range from the company on revenues and gross margins.
Strategists: never know when to keep their mouth shut.