Investors3
4 weeks ago
Apple CEO Tim Cook congratulates President Trump on his resounding victory
Thursday, November 7, 2024 9:28 am
7 Comments
In a post on X that’s been viewed over 4 million times, Apple CEO Tim Cook has congratulated President Trump on his resounding victory in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election.
Tim Cook via X:
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Congratulations President Trump on your victory!
We look forward to engaging with you and your administration to help make sure the United States continues to lead with and be fueled by ingenuity, innovation, and creativity.
MacDailyNews Note: Currently, President Trump is projected to win 312 of the 538 available electoral votes in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. More info here.
https://macdailynews.com/2024/11/07/apple-ceo-tim-cook-congratulates-president-trump-on-his-resounding-victory/
Apple less vulnerable to President Trump’s tariffs than ‘many might believe’ – Bernstein
Wednesday, November 6, 2024 4:02 pm
5 Comments
Apple is less vulnerable to increased trade tariffs from President Donald Trump, Bernstein analysts said Wednesday. Bernstein estimated that even if U.S. IT hardware companies increased prices by 20% due to higher tariffs, net profits stood to be materially impacted, especially for companies with lower gross margins.
Investing.com:
Dell Technologies Inc. and HP Inc. appeared the most vulnerable, while IBM was likely to be the least impacted.
Bernstein analysts said Apple was less vulnerable than broader consensus would suggest, with its high gross margins able to absorb higher tariffs despite its high exposure to the tech supply chain, especially in China. The company is expected to see a 7% hit to earnings per share.
Trump has proposed steep trade tariffs on imported goods regardless of the country of origin.
On China, however, Trump has proposed a 60% tariff on all goods, and as much as 200% tariffs on goods from Mexico. While Trump may not need Congressional approval to impose the duties, the Republicans were seen winning a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
MacDailyNews Note: Bernstein rates Apple as “Outperform” (Buy) with a 12-month price target of $240.
https://macdailynews.com/2024/11/06/apple-less-vulnerable-to-president-trumps-tariffs-than-many-might-believe-bernstein/#google_vignette
Investors3
1 month ago
Apple underwhelms Wall Street with all-time record fourth quarter earnings
Friday, November 1, 2024 8:59 am
No Comments
Following Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter earnings report in which the company posted all-time record revenue of $94.9 billion (an average of more than $1 billion in revenue per day), Apple said that total sales in the December period will rise by a percentage in the “low-to-middle single digits.” Analysts had been projecting a 7% increase.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
Apple Inc., heading into its most critical sales period of the year, sparked fresh concerns about revenue growth and lingering weakness in an intensely competitive China market… The concerns weighed on shares in late trading, sending them down about 2% [shares are down a further 2% in Friday’s pre-market trading]. The stock had been up 17% this year through Thursday’s close, fueled by optimism about Apple’s artificial intelligence prospects.
Overall revenue edged past Wall Street projections last quarter — helped by global iPhone demand — but the results show that the company is still struggling in a key market. Apple is competing with local brands in China, which serves as its main manufacturing hub.
Revenue in the region fell slightly from a year earlier to $15 billion in the fourth fiscal quarter, which ended Sept. 28. Analysts had estimated $15.8 billion.
The iPhone grew in every geographic market, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said, signaling that the rest of the company’s product lineup may have been the issue in China, its biggest source of revenue after the Americas and Europe.
Total sales rose 6.1% to $94.9 billion, compared with an average estimate of $94.4 billion. Earnings were 97 cents a share, though they would have been $1.64 without a one-time charge related to a European General Court decision, Apple said.
MacDailyNews Take: Thank you for the early Christmas gift, Wall Street!
“Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” — Warren Buffett
https://macdailynews.com/2024/11/01/apple-underwhelms-wall-street-with-all-time-record-fourth-quarter-earnings/
boston745
1 month ago
Interaction of mobile phones with superficial passive implants
In this study, numerical methods and modelling were used to estimate the effect of a passive, metallic (conducting) superficial implant on a mobile phone EM field and especially its absorption in tissues in the near field.
The SAR values increased most when the implant was on the skin and had a resonance length or diameter, i.e. about a third of the wavelength in tissues. The local peak SAR values increased even by a factor of 400-700 due to a pin or a ring. These highest values were reached in a limited volume close to the implant surface in almost all the studied cases. In contrast, without the implant the highest SAR values were generally reached on the skin surface. Mass averaged SAR(1 g) and SAR(10 g) values increased due to the implant even by a factor of 3 and 2, respectively.
Cellular and other sources of radiation increase corrosion of metal implants in the body! Look at the image below for those that store their phones in their pockets next to say a hip implant. Arguably less of an issue compared to actively using your phone near your metal dental implant which i believe contributed to Dick Van Dykes headaches. Thats why removing them fix his excessive migraine issues.
3. Metal Implants and disease
E.
When EMFs activate VGCC, it causes a rapid buildup, negatively affecting the brain and possibly causing the onset of Alzheimer’s to speed up. Animal studies have demonstrated how EMF-induced changes in intracellular calcium levels play a role in the development of the most common form of dementia.
“EMFs act via peak electric and time varying magnetic forces at a nanosecond time scale,” explains study author and Washington State University Professor Martin L. Pall in a media release.
Pall adds that the peaks significantly grow with each increase in the pulse modulation coming from smartphones, smart meters, and even radar in self-driving vehicles.
F.
Legendary actor Dick Van Dyke says he has solved a medical mystery that has baffled him and his doctors for years. The cause of pounding headaches that have plagued him for seven years are his titanium dental implants, he says.
There are tests for titanium allergies, says Dr. Brownstein, but that doesn’t explain what happened to Dick Van Dyke. “Titanium is metal and it creates kind of a lightning rod in the head,” he said. “It doesn’t happen to everyone, and most doctors don’t look for it. Most people have other metals in their mouths, like fillings, and saliva combines with the metal to give a battery-like effect.
“Any metal can do this, and it can be a big problem,” he says. “I just had a patient with issues similar to Van Dyke’s — headaches and facial pain that no one could identify.”
Quote Sources:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7839589_Interaction_of_mobile_phones_with_superficial_passive_implants
E. https://studyfinds.org/cell-phone-radiation-alzheimers/
F. https://emerginnova.com/dick-van-dyke-mystery-illness/
https://i.imgur.com/nLg7SXT.jpg
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Here is a collection of my research going over multiple subjects including Tesla AI/Neural Net for AB missile systems, SpaceX satellites = grid of satellites for Brilliant Pebbles, September 11ths SpaceX connection, & Musk = DoD stooge.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=175270333
tw0122
1 month ago
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 24, 2024 ~David Solomon, Chairman and CEO, Goldman SachsThe Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) typically receives high praise from Wall Street On Parade for leveling the playing field between the pillagers on Wall Street and the hardworking poor and middle class of America. But yesterday’s announcement of the CFPB’s settlement with Goldman Sachs and Apple over some of the most abusive conduct we have observed against consumers in decades left us with the impression that Goldman Sachs’ lawyers had browbeat the CFPB into a watered-down deal.The enforcement action by the CFPB pertained to years of abuses by both Apple and Goldman Sachs involving the Apple Credit Card. Under the CFPB’s settlement, Goldman Sachs will pay $19.8 million in redress to victims and a $45 million civil money penalty, bringing Goldman’s total settlement to $64.8 million. Apple will pay a $25 million civil money penalty for a combined $89.8 million by both parties.Let’s pause right here for a moment. Goldman Sachs had profits of $8.52 billion in 2023. The settlement amount of $64.8 million is less than 1 percent of its profits last year. That makes a mockery of holding a serial miscreant like Goldman Sachs accountable for putting Apple Credit Card customers through a living hell and destroying people’s credit rating in the process.Credit on the Apple Credit Card was provided by the taxpayer-backstopped, federally-insured commercial bank that Goldman Sachs is allowed to own – despite its checkered past. That commercial bank is known as Goldman Sachs Bank USA. For a snapshot look at how prudently it is managed, consider this: as of June 30 it held $544 billion in assets and $55 trillion in derivatives. (See Table 15 at this link. The derivatives report is provided by a federal banking regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.)The CFPB announced yesterday that Goldman Sachs had engaged in the following abuses in connection with the Apple Credit Card:[When customers complained about erroneous charges,] “the bank failed to consistently send acknowledgment notices within 30 days, conduct reasonable investigations, or send resolution letters explaining the determinations of its investigations within 90 days. These failures led to Goldman Sachs illegally placing damaging information on consumers’ credit reports and holding cardholders responsible for potentially fraudulent or unauthorized purchases.”The CFPB also wrote this:“The marketing of the Apple Card Monthly Installments plan led consumers to believe they would automatically receive interest-free financing when purchasing iPhones and other Apple devices with their Apple Card. The plan allowed cardholders to purchase Apple devices through a series of interest-free payments over a period of six months to two years. However, many cardholders were unknowingly charged interest because they were not automatically enrolled as expected. They also faced confusing checkout options about enrolling in the plan. For online purchases, Apple only presented the payment plan as an option to consumers using Apple’s own Safari browser. Due to Apple and Goldman’s actions, instead of making interest-free payments, thousands of cardholders purchased Apple devices on interest-bearing revolving balances and incurred interest charges.”Wall Street On Parade began reporting on the grotesque manner in which the Apple Credit Card was being handled as early as August 10, 2022. Our first report came one year after J.D. Power had lavished a customer satisfaction award on the Apple Credit Card provided through Goldman Sachs.The J.D. Power Award came in August 2021. We dug through customer complaints in the CFPB’s database for the same month, August 2021, and found the following telltale signs of big problems: (The redacted information has been redacted by the CFPB; typos are in the original.)A customer in California wrote this:“This problem has been ongoing since XXXX, I have had to open multiple disputes through Apple credit card (goldman Sachs) and every time I open disputes, they ALWAYS favor the merchant ( XXXX ) There were multiple unauthorized purchases on my card through XXXX, XXXX helped with most of them besides one order that was {$1400.00}. My credit card issuer Goldman Sachs is saying that the dispute keeps favoring them no matter what evidence I give them. I really want to sue or something, I have no idea what to do now…” (Read the full complaint here.)A customer in Massachusetts told the CFPB this:“My 11 year old computer died and I went online to apple.com to buy a replacement one. Their site advertises that you can get an Apple credit card with 0 % APR for the first 12 months and pay off the computer. When I tried to redeem that offer, their Goldman Sachs website came back and extended a {$2500.00} credit limit, which does not cover the cost of a computer on their site. I called in to get the limit increased to {$3200.00} because I make {$320000.00} a year and have a XXXX credit rating. When I called in, their representative told me the only way to request a credit limit increase to cover the cost of the computer was to accept the credit card offer and open an account. So I did. He told me the next day I had to call back to request a credit increase. There was no other way to get an increase on the application. I have just done that, and despite making a high salary, having zero credit debt and having an excellent credit score, Goldman Sachs / Apple has denied the application and not giving me a reason…” (Read the full complaint here.)A resident of Virginia wrote this:“On XX/XX/21, an unknown charge for {$840.00} was Pending on my Apple Card (Goldman Sachs), I submitted a dispute the same day and was told that, because the charge was still ‘pending’, they would monitor the charge and if the charge posted, the dispute process would start with no further action from me. If the charge did not post, it would just drop off of my account. Since then, I have made dozens of calls and chat sessions with Apple Card Support about this charge that posted to my account on XX/XX/21. On this date, I received a ‘provisional credit’ and exactly one minute later, the provisional credit was reversed. After many phone calls, I finally learned that the dispute that I repeatedly called about had been ruled in the merchant ‘s favor because, they stated, I ‘withdrew my dispute’ — this is a complete falsehood…” (Read the full complaint here.)In 2023, we took another look at the CFPB’s complaint database and found hundreds of cries for help from people being ripped off with the Apple Credit Card, including the following from a resident of Nevada:“Late last year, Apple credit card pulled a hard inquiry on my credit and issued me an Apple credit card. I did not request this credit card, so I contacted XXXX about this matter. Apple credit card closed my account and stated to me that they noted my account was closed because they could not verify that I requested, authorized, or applied for this credit card. I believe this credit card was requested by an XXXX store agent, without my authorization, when I purchased a new iphone. I believe this because the agent signed me up for several other offers that I did not request. These matters have been resolved with XXXX. Regarding the hard inquiry, the XXXX representative told me to contact each credit reporting agency to request that the hard inquiry be removed from my credit report. XXXX will be reporting this account as closed due to unable to verify that I applied for the credit card. Thank you for assisting in the removal of the hard inquiry with each agency.”This Nevada report suggests that salespeople in Apple’s retail stores may have been incentivized to open Apple Credit Card accounts without the customer’s approval. And yet, the CFPB settlement is silent on this issue.None of this egregious behavior by Goldman Sachs and Apple has made its way to the folks at J.D. Power. On August 15 of this year, J.D. Power made the following gasp-worthy announcement:“Apple Card (Goldman Sachs) ranks highest in customer satisfaction among co-brand credit cards with no annual fee, with a score of 654. This is the fourth consecutive year in which Apple Card and issuer Goldman Sachs have collectively earned a segment award….”Goldman Sachs’ history of abusing its customers dates back to the roaring 1920s. During the making of the stock market asset bubble of 1928, Goldman ran the Goldman Sachs Trading Company, a closed end fund known as a “trust” in those days. Goldman Sachs spun it off to the public at $104 a share. The trust was filled with dubious investments while paying Goldman a hefty management fee. Just a few years after the crash of 1929, the Goldman Sachs trust was trading at a buck and change. On May 20, 1932, Walter Sachs, President of the Goldman Sachs Trading Company, was interrogated by the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency. The Committee concluded that Goldman Sachs fleeced its customers to line its own pockets.On April 27, 2010 the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing and interviewed multiple executives of Goldman Sachs over its role in the subprime crisis and 2008 financial collapse. That hearing was followed by an in-depth report from the Subcommittee. Among the findings were the following regarding Goldman Sachs:“When Goldman Sachs realized the mortgage market was in decline, it took actions to profit from that decline at the expense of its clients. New documents detail how, in 2007, Goldman’s Structured Products Group twice amassed and profited from large net short positions in mortgage related securities. At the same time the firm was betting against the mortgage market as a whole, Goldman assembled and aggressively marketed to its clients poor quality CDOs [Collateralized Debt Obligations] that it actively bet against by taking large short positions in those transactions. New documents and information detail how Goldman recommended four CDOs, Hudson, Anderson, Timberwolf, and Abacus, to its clients without fully disclosing key information about those products, Goldman’s own market views, or its adverse economic interests. For example, in Hudson, Goldman told investors that its interests were ‘aligned’ with theirs when, in fact, Goldman held 100% of the short side of the CDO and had adverse interests to the investors, and described Hudson’s assets were ‘sourced from the Street,’ when in fact, Goldman had selected and priced the assets without any third party involvement. New documents also reveal that, at one point in May 2007, Goldman Sachs unsuccessfully tried to execute a ‘short squeeze’ in the mortgage market so that Goldman could scoop up short positions at artificially depressed prices and profit as the mortgage market declined.”For what Goldman Sachs has been up to more recently, see our reports: Goldman Sachs Criminally Charged by Justice Department – and Its Stock Closes Up $2.49 and Goldman Sachs Is Being Sued for 27 Separate Stock Offerings It Underwrote.To add further insult to injury, while much of the Apple Credit Card hubris was occurring, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, was moonlighting as a D.J. (You can’t make this stuff up.) Solomon still sits at the helm of the company.FacebookTwitterWhatsAppLinkedInEmail
Investors3
1 month ago
Oops! Warren Buffett left $23 billion on table by trimming Berkshire’s Apple stake
Friday, October 18, 2024 4:07 pm
2 Comments
Warren Buffett’s investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, substantially reduced its stake in Apple during the first half of 2024. According to regulatory filings, Berkshire has cut its Apple holdings by 55%. This move could have potentially cost the company a significant amount of money, as Apple’s stock price has risen by 10% since the end of the second quarter.
If Berkshire had maintained its previous position in Apple, its stake would be valued at approximately $210 billion at current market prices. This suggests that the company may have missed out on a $23 billion profit opportunity by trimming its Apple holdings.
Matthew Fox for Business Insider:
Calculations by Business Insider suggest Berkshire Hathaway’s sales of Apple stock in the first and second quarters of this year resulted in about $23 billion in missed profits for Warren Buffett’s conglomerate.
Berkshire Hathaway entered 2024 with a massive stake in Apple, holding 905.6 million shares worth about $174 billion at the time.
At current prices, that stake would have been worth about $210 billion. Instead, Berkshire Hathaway’s current stake in Apple was worth $84 billion at the end of the second quarter.
The difference between the weighted average price and the price of Apple stock on Thursday nets out the $23.1 billion in missed profits for Berkshire Hathaway.
MacDailyNews Take: $23 billion is quite the “oops!” And, that’s not even counting lost dividends! But, hey, nobody’s perfect. Own it, don’t trade it, Warren!
https://macdailynews.com/2024/10/18/oops-warren-buffett-left-23-billion-on-table-by-trimming-berkshires-apple-stake/#google_vignette
Investors3
1 month ago
President Trump says Apple CEO Tim Cook called to complain about EU’s $17 billion in fines
Thursday, October 17, 2024 2:28 pm
15 Comments
Former U.S. President Donald Trump said on the PBD Podcast posted on Thursday that Apple CEO Tim Cook called him to discuss the $17 billion in fines that Apple has been hit with by the European Union (EU). Trump said that he won’t let the EU “take advantage” of American companies like Apple.
Emma Roth for The Verge:
“Two hours ago, three hours ago, he [Cook] called me,” Trump said. “He said the European Union has just fined us $15 billion… Then on top of that, they got fined by the European Union another $2 billion.” In March, the EU fined Apple around $2 billion after finding that Apple used its dominance to restrict music streaming apps from telling customers about cheaper subscription deals outside the App Store. The EU later won its fight to make Apple pay $14.4 billion in unpaid taxes.
“He [Cook] said something that was interesting,” Trump said. “He said they’re using that to run their enterprise, meaning Europe is their enterprise. “I said, ‘That’s a lot… But Tim, I’ve got to get elected first, but I’m not going to let them take advantage of our companies — that won’t, you know, be happening.’”
The Verge reached out to Apple with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
MacDailyNews Take: Things that make you go “hmm.” One thing’s for sure, Cook isn’t wrong about the EU:
The European Union arose because the Europeans couldn’t compete on their own with the rest of the world, so they each lined up to surrender their national sovereignty, unique cultures, and dignity for an undemocratic, opaque, wasteful, bloated, bureaucratic quasi-governmental blob – and, even with the EU’s thumbs all over the scale, they still can’t compete. — MacDailyNews, March 4, 2024
https://macdailynews.com/2024/10/17/president-trump-says-apple-ceo-tim-cook-called-to-complain-about-eus-17-billion-in-fines/
Investors3
2 months ago
Apple Car Key coming soon to Volvo, Audi, Polestar vehicles
Tuesday, October 15, 2024 2:02 pm
1 Comment
Apple Car Key – digital car keys in the Wallet app – are coming soon to select Volvo, Audi, and Polestar vehicles, based on code changes discovered by MacRumors in Apple’s Wallet app backend.
Eric Slivka for MacRumors:
The car keys function can allow an iPhone or Apple Watch with NFC capabilities to unlock, lock, or start a vehicle through the Wallet app by simply holding the device near a compatible vehicle’s NFC reader. Car key functionality may vary by manufacturer and model.
Apple introduced digital car key support in 2022, and select car brands like BMW, BYD, Hyundai/Genesis/Kia, Lotus, Mercedes-Benz, and RAM have implemented support for the feature?.
MacDailyNews Note: To find a vehicle that works with CarPlay, check Apple’s list for the latest info here.
https://macdailynews.com/2024/10/15/apple-car-key-coming-soon-to-volvo-audi-polestar-vehicles/
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DiscoverGold
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