"Apple hits $2 trillion in market valuation" by Reed Albergotti Washington Post, August 19, 2020
WASHINGTON — Apple became the first publicly traded US company to be valued at $2 trillion Wednesday, a major milestone highlighting the iPhone maker’s ability to thrive in the post-Steve Jobs era.
Despite a pandemic that crippled global supply chains and harmed consumers, Apple has managed to keep producing and selling products, impressing Wall Street and proving that its business is resilient. Investors are also expecting a boost in sales as Apple customers upgrade to 5G, the latest wireless standard that is expected to be included in the new iPhones.
Being valued at $2 trillion also highlights how far the company has come since the death of Jobs in 2011. While Jobs was considered a visionary, current CEO Tim Cook, who succeeded Jobs, has managed to increase the value of the company more than some thought possible.
Jobs was against government trapdoors, and then contracted cancer and died.
At the same time, Apple is facing regulatory head winds, as European officials and lawmakers in the United States scrutinize the company’s power and investigate whether it has behaved anticompetitively, harming innovation and competition in the process.
If so, they were just copying the Micro$oft model.
Regulatory pressure hasn’t spooked investors, and there’s historical precedent to back them up. Microsoft faced antitrust lawsuits in the 1990s and saw its stock price increase. Companies that are broken up often become even more valuable.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
Apple’s business revolves around its most iconic device: the iPhone, and in recent years, sales of the iPhone have leveled off, especially in China, where economic and political turbulence have raised questions about Apple’s future there, but in the most recent quarter, Apple saw sales of iPhones accelerate, due in part to the release of a lower-cost iPhone SE.
Investors have been looking for Apple to increase its ‘‘install base,’’ or the number of people who own its devices. As more customers are sucked into Apple’s orbit, the company can sell more services, such as iCloud storage or Apple Music subscriptions, and it can sell accessories that tether to the iPhone, such as the Apple Watch.
Last month, Apple announced it did $26 billion in iPhone sales during the most recent quarter, up slightly from the previous year. That was a significant feather in the company’s hat, considering sales of the devices had been steadily slowing. Coupled with lower expectations due to the coronavirus, the news sent Apple’s stock up sharply.
During Cook’s nine years at Apple’s helm, he’s earned a reputation as one of the great CEOs in history, increasing the company’s value fivefold.
Rather than focus on creating new consumer products, Apple under Cook’s leadership has deftly managed to find ways to lock consumers into its growing orbit. As mobile phones become more essential in the daily lives of ordinary consumers, they’re forced to periodically upgrade their iPhones when the batteries wear out or the phone’s processor can no longer keep up with the latest app updates.
Apple has shown investors that it can earn money in other ways — namely, services. As its customers snap more pictures, Apple sells cloud storage, slowly increasing rates as customers take more and more pictures. Apple’s version of Spotify — called Apple Music — is now a major player in music streaming, thanks to Apple’s ability to promote the service to its customers and pre-install the software on all iPhones. It earned $13 billion in services last quarter, up from $11 billion the previous year.
What else is in that gizmo that you don't know about, and where are the privacy concerns?
Apple’s competitors — Spotify included — would like to see the playing field for services on the company’s iOS leveled. Last week, Epic Games sued Apple for alleged antitrust violations, after Apple removed Epic’s popular Fortnite video game from the Apple App Store.
Epic claims Apple’s rule, requiring all companies on its App Store to use Apple’s payment system, constitutes a violation of US law, and Epic says its 30 percent fee Apple charges for all goods and services sold on the platform is exorbitantly high because of the company’s monopoly.
--more--"
Here, this might make you hungry for more:
"The S&P 500 pulled back from its newly set record on Wednesday after a meandering day of trading. Indexes turned lower in the afternoon after the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its latest policy meeting. The central bank has been one of the main pillars propping up the market since it slashed short-term interest rates to record lows and essentially promised to buy as many bonds as it takes to keep markets running smoothly. The Fed’s minutes showed again that policy makers are finding it difficult to forecast the path of the economy, which will depend greatly on what happens with the virus. Earnings reporting season for big US companies has nearly wrapped up, with businesses in the S&P 500 on track to report a sharp decline in their profits for the spring, but not as bad as Wall Street had expected....."
It's the viru$ that drives the economics in a viru$-tainted world, or $o I've been told.
"..... Across the stock market, momentum has largely remained solid, but it has slowed recently after roaring back from a terrifying plummet of nearly 34 percent in February and March. “The elevator went down very quickly, so to speak,” Nancy Davis, chief investment officer of Quadratic Capital, said of the market’s plunge earlier this year, “and now we’ve been climbing the stairs back up, and we’re higher than we were before.” This is a traditionally slow time of the year for stocks, and the market is still in wait-and-see mode on several fronts. Investors still seem to believe that Congress and the White House will reach a deal to deliver more aid to the economy after federal unemployment benefits and other stimulus expired.
If the banks and Wall Street need more trillions, then you will get another Chump change check.
Democrats and Republicans have been stuck at an impasse and sniping back and forth, but investors are seeing speculation about a possible scaled-down version of aid passing Congress, said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird. Beyond Capitol Hill, investors are also waiting for more developments on the rising tensions between the United States and China. The world’s largest economies have longstanding trade issues, and President Trump has recently been targeting Chinese tech companies, in particular.
GM is driving over there as I type to help re$olve the i$$ues.
Also hanging over the market is the upcoming election, with the big changes in tax and other policies that it could bring. Democrats nominated Joe Biden late Tuesday to run against Trump. Apple continued its run of dominance and rose 0.1 percent. Earlier in the day, its total market value briefly topped $2 trillion, the first time a US company has crossed that threshold. It’s the latest accolade for Big Tech, which has thrived as the pandemic accelerates work-from-home and other tech-friendly trends. “While we talk about the S&P 500 at an all-time high, really it’s a handful of stocks at all-time highs,’’ Delwiche said....."
It means there is a Target on the backs of companies like Google:
"Target reported recorded-setting sales growth online and at established stores over the past three months, more evidence that big box retailers have become essential points of supply during the pandemic. Online sales surged 195 percent and same-store sales spiked 10.9 percent, second-quarter growth that is unprecedented in the company’s 58-year history. Walmart, Home Depot, and now Target have reported eye-popping sales over the past three months as Americans limit their supply runs to fewer stores and do more cooking and do-it-yourself projects at home. Lowe’s on Wednesday reported that comparable store sales in the United States surged 35.1 percent and online orders more than doubled with Americans spending much more time at home during the pandemic. The report came one day after Home Depot reported similarly explosive sales."
Those limits have been imposed by tyrannical governments over a planned $camdemic!
So where were you when the lights went out at T.J. Maxx?
"The owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, reported a worse-than-expected loss Wednesday and said its revenue fell 32 percent. Framingham-based TJX Cos., which has reopened its more than 4,500 stores closed in the earlier days of the pandemic, said there was strong demand for furniture and home decor at HomeGoods and the home section of its other discount stores. Its stores were open a little more than two thirds of the second quarter. “We are confident that when more customers are comfortable with in-store shopping, we will be in a great position to continue gaining market share as we have for many years,” said CEO Ernie Hermann. Its shares fell 5.38 percent Wednesday, to $54.36."
Let it never the said CEO's aren't delu$ional, as the racks and shelves go bare:
"The world’s biggest shipping company, Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk, said Wednesday that its business dropped only slightly during the second quarter as the COVID-19 pandemic hurt global demand but the outlook for trade is highly uncertain. The Copenhagen-based group said its revenue declined by 6.5 percent to $9 billion compared with the same quarter last year. Its profit went up to $443 million from $153 million for the same period last year. CEO Soeren Skou said the results were strong considering the economic conditions."
No more cheap crap coming on from China upon which most Americans have come to depend.
