Business

Apple Inc. had hoped that its iPhone eight might demolish the company’s sales records in China as the country’s burgeoning middle class embraced the phone, thanks in part to its name: Eight is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture, signifying wealth and fortune.

Unfortunately for the world’s most valuable company, this calculus isn’t playing out as well as its massive marketing operation had hoped for one simple reason: The price of the phone is simply too high for most members of the company's target demographic.

Authorted by Steven Hansen via StockBoardAsset.com,

When some think of the economy, they think of GDP. When I think of the economy, I try to visualize the average Joe and how he or she is doing.

According to Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard:

Curious what the impact was of those dramatic price cuts by Amazon at Whole Foods two weeks ago? We now have the answer.

As a reminder, at the end of August, just as the Amazon purchase of Whole Foods closed, Jeff Bezos slashed prices at his newest retail acquisition by up to 43%. As Bloomberg calculated then, some of the more prominent examples were as follows:

In what may be a major breakthrough in the diplomatic and political stalemate over North Korea if confirmed officially, Japan's Kyodo newspaper reported overnight that Chinese state banks have started suspending transactions through accounts held by North Koreans, making it nearly impossible to do business between the two countries.

Instead of the daily Bill Blain commentary (who today is caught in a deeply introspective debate whether or not climate change is or is not man-made) here are some observations from his Mint Partners stock-picking colleague, Steve Pervis, on where we are, and where the market may be going next.

MARKET-TECHNICAL PICTURE

 

Friday was another one of those days when the market basically went nowhere. Therefore, as we have stated time and time again, when the market doesn’t move, the technical picture doesn’t change.