Apple

Apple (AAPL) Suffers Biggest Market Cap Loss Ever

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– AAPL Suffers Biggest Market Cap Loss Ever (ZeroHedge, Dec 4, 2012):

It seems like it was only yesterday when we were praising the miraculous 4 sigma move in AAPL stock, when it soared by nearly $40 in one trading session. It wasn’t: it was November 19. Which is why it probably shouldn’t be surprising that two short weeks later AAPL stock has just seen its biggest dollar fall in absolute terms in history, down $37 dollars or nearly 7%, its biggest one-day percentage drop since September 2008. Why? Nobody really knows, but when the world’s biggest company by market cap trades increasingly like a penny stock, does anyone really care?

In absolute terms, AAPL has lost nearly $35 billion in market cap in several hours today: more than the market cap of BlackRock, Morgan Stanley or Wal-Green, with no real material news except for the occasional weak order hearsay (which one didn’t really need considering the US and global consumer is totally tapped out), and various other rumors. One thing is certain: the 240+ hedge funds who owned the stock as of September 30, and which did their best to paint the tape for November, are now at a complete loss what to do to delay what was certainly going to be a redemption avalanche for the second month in a row.

Histogram of $ moves in AAPL stock in the past two years:

Read moreApple (AAPL) Suffers Biggest Market Cap Loss Ever

JPMorgan Cuts Q4 GDP Forecast To 1.5%, Now Sees iPhone Sales Contribute 33% Of Growth Upside!

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– JPM Cuts Q4 GDP Forecast to 1.5%, Now Sees iPhone Sales Contribute 33% Of Growth Upside (ZeroHedge, Dec 3, 2012):

Remember Michael Feroli? The JPM economist who “predicted” US Q4 GDP would be boosted by 0.5% due to iPhone sales (don’t laugh: yes, US GDP, not that of China where the iPhone is actually produced, but the US where the consumer merely incurs more record student loans to be able to afford it)? Well, the same JPMorganite has now cut his Q4 GDP expectation to 1.5% for all the same reasons why we penned the second Q3 GDP revision: namely ugly internals, a surge in hollow government and inventory contributions to “growth”, and a collapse in the purchasing power of the US consumer (who somehow is still expected to boost Q4 GDP with iPhone sales). And while there is no mention of the iPhone in his just released downward revision, he still believes the cell phone will provide a boost to Q4 GDP. In other words, of the 1.5% in GDP growth in Q4, the iPhone will account for 33% of this! One really can not make this up.

From JPM:

Read moreJPMorgan Cuts Q4 GDP Forecast To 1.5%, Now Sees iPhone Sales Contribute 33% Of Growth Upside!

Apple’s Foxconn Sees New Source Of Cheap Labor: The United States

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– Foxconn Sees New Source Of Cheap Labor: The United States (Forbes, Nov 8, 2012):

Foxconn Electronics – the China-based contract electronics manufacturer also known as Hon Hai – is planning to build manufacturing plants in the U.S., DigiTimes reports, in a story attributed to “market watchers.”

The company is reportedly evaluating “cites such as Detroit and Los Angeles.”

The story says that “since the manufacturing of Apple‘s products is rather complicated, the market watchers expect the rumored plants to focus on LCD TV production, which can be highly automated and easier.”

Nice to think they will be hiring here…but still a fascinating insult to U.S. manufacturing prowess, dontcha think – the idea that actually making Apple products is a little too complicated for Americans to handle…

Read moreApple’s Foxconn Sees New Source Of Cheap Labor: The United States

Apple Rejects iPhone App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes

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Drones+ iPhone App from Josh Begley on Vimeo.

– Apple Rejects App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes (Wired, Aug 30, 2012):

It seemed like a simple enough idea for an iPhone app: Send users a pop-up notice whenever a flying robots kills someone in one of America’s many undeclared wars. But Apple keeps blocking the Drones+ program from its App Store — and therefore, from iPhones everywhere. The Cupertino company says the content is “objectionable and crude,” according to Apple’s latest rejection letter.

It’s the third time in a month that Apple has turned Drones+ away, says Josh Begley, the program’s New York-based developer. The company’s reasons for keeping the program out of the App Store keep shifting. First, Apple called the bare-bones application that aggregates news of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia “not useful.” Then there was an issue with hiding a corporate logo. And now, there’s this crude content problem.

Read moreApple Rejects iPhone App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes

Samsung S3 Overtakes iPhone As World’s Best-Selling Smartphone

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Both smartphones will destroy your health:

– Italy’s Supreme Court: Mobile Phones Can Cause Brain Tumors

– Former Royal Navy Microwave Weapons Expert And UK Intelligence Services Agent Dr. Barrie Trower: Dangers And Lethality Of Microwave Technology (Video – 2:19:36)

More links are down below.

– Samsung S3 Overtakes iPhone As World’s Best-Selling Smartphone (ZeroHedge, Nov 8, 2012):

Look up the phrase “inflection point” – it will be the most hated phrase by all those who day after day repeat that there is now way AAPL can ever drop because its “forward multiple is low” (hint: forward multiples are simply functions of forward earnings, and once the fadness and coolness of a memo, no matter how infectious in the past, is gone, so are “forward earnings’, especially once the sellside behavioral finance lemmings crew takes the machete to their Price Targets and has to justify why it has been massively wrong… and also for those who have a calculator, calculate how many years of dividends $100 billion in cash funds before the cash hoard also runs out).

From Reuters:

Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S3 became the world’s best-selling smartphone model last quarter, pushing aside Apple Inc’s iPhone, which has dominated the chart for more than two years, research firm Strategy Analytics said on Thursday.

Strategy Analytics estimated Samsung sold 18 million S3 models in the third quarter, compared with iPhone 4S sales of 16.2 million.

Read moreSamsung S3 Overtakes iPhone As World’s Best-Selling Smartphone

The Cult Of AAPL Maybe Coming To An End …

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– AAPL Reality Sinks In Sub-$600 As Option-Overlays Lifted (ZeroHedge, Oct 26, 2012):

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In english this looks like this:

  • Managers were grossly over-weight (in their books) AAPL
  • Wanted to reduce weight as AAPL’s weight in index reached peak levels and fundamental cracks started to show
  • Last few weeks have seen VWAP sell orders dominating
  • BUT – the algos can only clear so much and given the huge breadth of holdings…
  • Managers bought Option overlays with both hands and feet (as we noted yesterday) to protect through earnings
  • And today – with options open, they are unwinding the protection (implied vol dropping even as stock price plunges) and reducing net long exposure in size (see volume)…

Bottom line – long-only managers will retain exposure (as index trackers) but clearly need to unwind some weight and anyone telling you this is all short-sellers is incorrect – the simple facts of VWAP fades and implied vol dropping suggests its long-exits as the cult of AAPL maybe coming to an end…

Apple Disappoints – 230 Hedge Funds Suddenly Cried Out In Terror And Were Suddenly Silenced

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– Apple Disappoints (ZeroHedge, Oct 25, 2012):

And so the behemoth misses… again:

  • APPLE 4Q EPS $8.67, EST. $8.75 – miss
  • APPLE 4Q SALES $36.0B – slight beat
  • APPLE SOLD 14.0 MILLION IPADS DURING QTR, UNIT EST. 15.3M

But the uglyness is in the forecast. And this time it is not a low-ball:

  • APPLE SEES 1Q EEPS $11.75, , EST. $15.49
  • APPLE SEES 1Q REV. ABOUT $52B, EST. $55.07B

Stock halted so keep an eye on the QQQ as a proxy – QQQs imply AAPL $590 here (200DMA is $587)… AAPL will resume trading at 4:50ET

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– 230 Hedge Funds Suddenly Cried Out In Terror And Were Suddenly Silenced (ZeroHedge, Oct 25, 2012):

A week after the second most populous hedge fund hotel, Google, blew up, it is now time for good ole’ Hotel Caaplefornia itself. The HF holders table below is presented without comment (as we have said all there is to say many times). Remember: orderly, cool, calm, collected single file procession through the tight exit: and nobody panic!

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Apple’s Foxconn Says Underage Workers Used In China Plant (Reuters)

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– Foxconn says underage workers used in China plant (Reuters, Oct 17, 2012):

TAIPEI – Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, has acknowledged hiring teenagers as young as 14 in a Chinese factory, in breach of national law, in a case that raises further questions over its student intern program.

Labor rights activists in China have accused Foxconn and other big employers in China of using student interns as a cheap source of labor for production lines where it is more difficult to attract young adult workers to lower paid jobs.

Foxconn, the trading name of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry, said it had found some interns at a plant in Yantai, in northeastern Shandong province, were under the legal working age of 16. It did not say how many were underage.

“Our investigation has shown that the interns in question, who ranged in age from 14 to 16, had worked in that campus for approximately three weeks,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Read moreApple’s Foxconn Says Underage Workers Used In China Plant (Reuters)

Famous Investors Marc Faber & Jim Rogers On Our ‘Clueless, Ignorant, Dangerous’ Leaders (CNBC Video)

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– Marc Faber & Jim Rogers On Our “Clueless, Ignorant, Dangerous” Leaders (ZeroHedge, Oct 4, 2012):

While the discussions between these two legends varied from Phat Phong nightlife to Dow 30,000, and from China bullishness to AAPL bearishness, it was the conversation about the actions of Bernanke, and more importantly our political leaders that summed up perfectly the dreadful reality in which we find ourselves. The punchline: “It is very dangerous to have ignorant people believing that they know something.”

Rogers is bullish China long-term but buying Chinese stocks only selectively…

Faber sees under-the-surface weakness in US equities and while central banks could print us to Dow 30,000; gold and other commodities will be astronomical by then…

Faber is bearish AAPL, believes its a bubble – but too dangerous to short…

Both are uber-bearish central-bankers and politicians…

Marc Faber: “Both candidates are clueless and completely artificial…”

Jimmy Rogers: “It’s worse than clueless, because they think they know what they’re doing.. and so they are dangerous! If they were just clueless and looked out the window, we wouldn’t have a problem, but they think they have the solution – but their solutions are what’s making the situation worse…”

Marc Faber: “That is precisely the point. It is very dangerous to have ignorant people believing that they know something!”

Summed up perfectly, we believe.


Must watch – especially to hear the CNBC anchor squirming…

Apple Has Satanic Close To Quarter

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– Apple Has Satanic Close To Quarter (ZeroHedge, Sep 28, 2012):

Ending the day at the lows, AAPL’s stock price traded with a truly demonic $666.66  after-hours. The reason for the last few days’ weakness? Who knows when a bubble bursts but between its analog to MSFT’s meteoric rise, the stocks’ weight in the NASDAQ, ‘disappointing’ first-week sales, Cook’s Maps FUBAR, supply-chain disruptions, or the market having to suddenly price in the arrival of the new Obama-phone, volumes have been picking up.The Bat-Phone…

The Apple iPhone… and its high-volume selling pressure and $666.66 after-hours close…

AAPL +65% YTD, +14% in Q3, +0.23% in September

The Cleveland Obama-Phone…

iRiot: Thousands Of Apple’s Foxconn Workers Clash With Security Guards In China

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– Thousands of Foxconn workers clash with security guards in China (WSWS, Sep 25, 2012):

Taiwan-based Foxconn, the world’s largest outsourcing electronics manufacturer, had to suspend production at one of its major facilities, in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan, on Monday following a protest during which 2,000 assembly line workers clashed with 1,500 security guards.

The unrest is another sign of the rising social tensions in China, where the economy is slowing sharply due to the deepening slump in the major Western markets, threatening to fuel major working class confrontations with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime.

Read moreiRiot: Thousands Of Apple’s Foxconn Workers Clash With Security Guards In China

Pulitzer Prize Journalist Chris Hedges Warns of Physical Roundups Under Obama (Video)

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Highly recommended!!!


YouTube Added: 05.09.2012

Description:

Alex talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and war correspondent Chris Hedges. “Revolt is all we have left. It is our only hope,” Hedges recently wrote.

@Amazon.com: Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

Drone Club … You Don’t Talk About It

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– Drone Club (ZeroHedge, Sep 6, 2012):

The first rule of Fight Club?

You don’t talk about Fight Club.

Obama isn’t a member of Fight Club; he’s a member of Drone Club — which targets individuals in foreign lands, including American citizens and their families, for extrajudicial assassination by drone. And the first rule of Drone Club?

You don’t talk about it.

Via Reprieve:

Apple has for the third time this month rejected an iPhone app which alerts the user to a drone attack and to the number of people killed.  Drones+ enables those concerned to track the strikes to their handset.

This is no doubt an uncomfortable prospect for the US authorities, whose use of drones extends to Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, where no war has been declared.  Such drone strikes have killed more than 3,300 people in Pakistan alone since 2004, according to reports by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Now we don’t know who made this decision, whether Apple thinks that citizens knowing of drone strikes is a national security risk, or whether Apple were leaned on by the CIA, NSA or Pentagon — though given that Obama has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all other Presidents combined, the latter wouldn’t be entirely unsurprising. Nonetheless, whatever the truth this is a very disturbing development — after all, how can we rightly judge the administration’s foreign and national security policy without having up to date facts?

Obama claims that the drone strikes are conducted on a very rigorous basis:

Read moreDrone Club … You Don’t Talk About It

Apple Awarded Patent To Remotely Shut Down Cameras Via Infrared Signal

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– Apple awarded patent for location-based remote disabling of mobile devices (End The Lie, Sep 4, 2012):

Last week Apple was awarded a troubling patent, originally filed in June of 2008, which would enable a feature many users likely wouldn’t want: the remote disabling of the camera on one of Apple’s many devices via infrared signal. Allowing for the cameras on cell phones to be remotely disabled could, in my opinion, be quite dangerous since it very well might mean that crimes could go unpunished due to the lack of video evidence which might otherwise be collected.

With reports of police attempting to buy videos from witnesses who captured a quite disturbing incident involving officers, reports of police forcibly seizing the cell phone of a witness and even reports of police allegedly confiscating the cell phone of a witness and destroying evidence of police brutality, one can imagine who would benefit from such a feature.

The patent, number 8,254,902, is entitled, “Apparatus and methods for enforcement of policies upon a wireless device” and it outlines a broad range of ways this technology could be applied for so-called “policy enforcement.”

Read moreApple Awarded Patent To Remotely Shut Down Cameras Via Infrared Signal

Wal-Mart Tests iPhone App Checkout Feature

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“All of the effort is to speed your way through the checkout so that we can reduce costs …”

= We can fire some of our expensive workers.

– Exclusive: Walmart tests iPhone app checkout feature (Reuters Aug 31, 2012):

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is testing a system that would allow shoppers to scan items using their iPhones and then pay at a self-checkout counter, a move that could trim checkout times and slash costs for retailers.

If the “Scan & Go” test by the world’s largest retailer is successful, it has the potential to change the way people shop and pay, making the process more personal and potentially faster.

Earlier this week, Walmart invited employees with Apple Inc iPhones to participate in a test at a Walmart supercenter in Rogers, Arkansas, near the company’s headquarters, according to a form on the Survey Monkey website. (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/selfcheckout)

“All of the effort is to speed your way through the checkout so that we can reduce costs and improve the shopping experience,“ said Paul Weitzel, managing partner at retail consulting firm Willard Bishop, who said he had not seen Walmart’s test. “With smartphones and improved technology we’re only going to see more of this.”

Read moreWal-Mart Tests iPhone App Checkout Feature

Apple iPhone To Replace Your Wallet

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– Will the next iPhone replace your wallet? Apple set to take on Google with chip that could let you pay with a wave of your handset (Daily Mail, Aug 28, 2012):

  • iPhone expected to have NFC chip that could turn it into a credit card
  • Successful launch could spark a revolution in how payments are made
  • Will take on Google which already offers wallet feature is some of its Android phones
  • Apple expected to unveil phone on September 12, followed by UK launch in early October

The iPhone has already replaced digital cameras, MP3 players and portable games consoles for most owners.

Now it could be about to replace your wallet.

The next iPhone, which is believed to launch in just two weeks time, is expected to come with a built-in chip which can serve as your credit or debit card for small payments.

Read moreApple iPhone To Replace Your Wallet

AAPL Weight In NASDAQ Index Now 19.8% … Is Another Rebalancing Imminent?

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– With AAPL 19.8% Of The NASDAQ, Is Another Rebalancing Imminent? (ZeroHedge, Aug 24, 2012):

Just over 16 months ago, the NASDAQ did an unusual thing. As the WSJ noted at the time, AAPL, which had reached a 20% weighting in the NASDAQ-100, was rebalanced to 12.3%. This weighting was apparently too much for the index-provider who feared “the tech company’s big weighting means that a change in fortune for the maker of iPhones, iPods and iPads has a huge impact on one of the most heavily traded indexes in the market.”Since 04/05/11, when that rebalance occurred, AAPL’s market cap has doubled, while the NASDAQ-100 is up just under 20% ($627bn versus $3.15tn). With the current weighting of AAPL in the NASDAQ-100 at 19.8%, we wonder what is next – as the WSJ noted at the time, any “rebalancing is likely to kick off waves of trading… as money managers scramble to adjust holdings to reflect the new composition of the index.” Interestingly, AAPL has reached 20% of the index twice this year already – which just happened to coincide with significant selling pressure on the stock – will third time be the charm?

Read moreAAPL Weight In NASDAQ Index Now 19.8% … Is Another Rebalancing Imminent?

Silver Spike Does Not Deter Zombie Market As Apple Touches The Sign Of The Beast

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– Silver Spike Does Not Deter Zombie Market As Apple Touches The Sign Of The Beast (ZeroHedge, Aug 20, 2012):

UPDATE: AAPL cracked the demonic $666 level after-hours
For a moment this morning some were even thinking this would be the day, this could be the one where volumes come back, ranges expand, and some level of risk sensitivity returns; but alas, despite all the AAPL pumping and Silver surging, Equities ended the day unch on weak volumes (actually cash equities ended very small down for the 16th of the last 17 Monday red closes). The S&P 500 e-mini future (ES) intraday range was a remarkably low 8.5pts, volume at its new post-Knight normal (half-normal), average trade-size lower than average, and risk-assets in general were highly correlated during the day-session as Treasuries also closed unchanged, USD down very modestly and Oil unch. Financials and Tech & Healthcare and Utilities were the only sectors in the green on the day (in an awkward risk on and off way). Copper dumped as Silver surged 2.6% on the day to two-month highs. AAPL also surged 2.6% (up 7% in the last 6 days – a level that has repeatedly been followed by pullbacks this year) as everyone’s new favorite IPO (MANU) lost 2.6% (even as FB gained almost 5% closing just below $20). VIX gained 0.6 vols ending above 14% (but drifted lower from the open). While the markets main seem zombie-like, there were some intraday moves in FX and Treasury markets – but these were dominant during Europe’s open and faded into the US day-session.

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10 Most Profitable U.S. Companies Paid 9% In Federal Income Taxes

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– 10 Most Profitable U.S. Companies Paid 9% in Federal Income Taxes (AllGov, Aug 18, 2012):

The largest corporations in the U.S., consisting of oil, retail, banking and technology giants, paid an average of only 9% of their earnings in income taxes to the Internal Revenue Service last year.

According to the tax code, companies are supposed to pay 35% income tax. But NerdWallet determined that the top 10 came nowhere near that.

Exxon Mobil, the country’s biggest business, made more than $73 billion in 2011, but paid only $1.5 billion to the IRS.

The second largest company, Chevron, paid $1.9 billion in taxes after collecting $47.6 billion in revenue.

No. 3 on the list, Apple, made $34.2 billion. It paid $3.9 billion to the IRS.

These were followed by:

Read more10 Most Profitable U.S. Companies Paid 9% In Federal Income Taxes