iPhone

Authored by Mark St.Cyr,

Last week I wrote an article titled, “If Everything Is So Great, Where Are The Unicorn IPOs?” In that article I posited an idea, or reasoning, as to why some companies such as Facebook™ and Amazon™ are suddenly deciding to release more GAAP friendly earnings reports as to show both investors, as well as, regulators the numbers with greater transparency, as opposed to, their relentless white-knuckled grip to Non-GAAP. In it I made the following observations, to wit:

• Nerves dominate before U.S. retail numbers (Reuters)
• Stocks Give Up Week’s Gains as Commodities Fall; Yen, Bonds Rise (BBG)
• Apple Invests $1 Billion in Didi, Uber’s Rival in China (WSJ)
• Dollar hits two-week high, posts best fortnight since February (Reuters)
• OPEC Sees Rival Oil Production Declining as Markets Rebalance (WSJ)
• Trump on best behavior as he woos Republicans but differences remain (Reuters)
• Hedge Fund Star: We Are ‘Under Assault’ (WSJ)
• German GDP growth picks up sharply (MW)

Global stocks have started Friday the 13th on the wrong foot, with not only Hong Kong GDP unexpectedly tumbling by 0.4%, the worst print in years while retail sales fell for a thirteenth straight month in March, the longest stretch since 1999 as the Chinese hard landing spreads to the wealthy enclave, but also following a predicted collapse in Chinese new loan creation, which will reverberate not only in China but around the globe in the coming weeks.

Gboard is Google’s new cool keyboard for iOS devices. A noteworthy app that is not yet available for Android. Tech Insider reports: Keyboards are increasingly seen as a critical part of mobile operating systems, because they can work across multiple apps, and can collect some of the most personal user data. The key feature for Google’s iPhone keyboard is that it integrates Google Search into the keyboard — one example Google provides is that you can search for an address right from the keyboard, so you don’t have to copy and paste from a separate app.

Apple share are tumbling (as are the entire complex of suppliers) following a report from Nikkei that Taiwan Seminconductor's shipments of iPhone 6s, iPhone 7 chips for June-Dec. period will likely shrink 70%-80% vs year earlier. As one anayst noted, a decline of more than 20-30% is not in consensus estimates. As Bloomberg reports, of particular interest is that this cut to orders is about upcoming iPhone 7, not about the well-publicized iPhone 6 slowdown.