Earlier today, as AAPL stock was plummeting and had lost a whopping $75 billion in market cap, dropping as low as $92/share, CNBC's Jim Cramer pulled a rabit out of a hat, or in this case a previously undisclosed email out of his inbox. An email [7]from AAPL CEO Tim Cook which said the following (as subsequently conveyed by Cramer to CNBC viewers [7]):
Jim,
As you know, we don't give mid-quarter updates and we rarely comment on moves in Apple stock. But I know your question is on the minds of many investors.
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.
Obviously I can't predict the future, but our performance so far this quarter is reassuring. Additionally, I continue to believe that China represents an unprecedented opportunity over the long term as LTE penetration is very low and most importantly the growth of the middle class over the next several years will be huge.
Tim
While we are delighted by Tim Cook's subjective take of AAPL's Chinese prospects, we have a different question: where is the public filing that accompanies this letter which constitutes nothing short of a private business update with an outside, and unregulated by Apple, market cheerleader?
Because as the AAPL reaction to Tim's letter, which was clearly in Cramer's private possession for at least 1 millisecond before it was made public (and thus we don't know who else may have had access to it before its public dissemination), just how is this not a Regulation Fair Disclosure violation?
Needless to say, the fate of AAPL, which is the most important stock in the world, held by a record 181 hedge funds, determines the intraday (and not only) fate of the entire market.
Remember: the fate of AAPL determines the fate of the US stock market pic.twitter.com/04NAbgVR2k [8]
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 24, 2015 [9]
And for those who may have missed it, this is what AAPL's stock has done today, ever since this clearly market moving letter, helped AAPL regain an unprecedented $80 billion in market cap since the lows.
[10]
We are eagerly looking to find an 8K public filing of Tim Cook's letter among AAPL's EDGAR filings, even if it will have taken place hours after the market moving event, or alternatively, perhaps the SEC or any other authorities who were not too stunned to react today, can explain just why this is not a Reg FD violation?
Then again, with AAPL leading the S&P rapidly into the green, we are confident this, too, will be promptly forgotten and swept under the carpet of "whatever it takes to keep the market green."
