My Stock/Market Alert is an event driven brief about a stock OR the stock market when noteworthy action occurs. Today’s jump in Apple’s stock to a record high due to its announcement of its AI expansion is one of those occurrences.
Expect the frequency of my Stock/Market Alert notes to be consistent with meaningful moves in a specific stock held by BAM Portfolios or the stock market.
This is an important week for the financial markets, as the economic calendar is loaded with key inflation data. The May CPI is out tomorrow, the May PPI on Thursday, and the May Import Price Index on Friday. We also have an FOMC interest-rate decision (nothing expected) and Chairman Powell’s press conference. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the next real chance for Fed action is at the September 18 meeting, where the probability of a 25-basis-point cut is 45% versus 51% for no action. Also on this week’s calendar is Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Based on today’s massive move in Apple stock, WWDC is likely to be the most impactful event this week on the stock market. It kicked off yesterday and goes all week. The highly anticipated conference was all about Apple and AI. Even with Apple’s creative twist on AI as we know it (calling it “Apple Intelligence”) day one of WWDC 2024 was underwhelming – at least measured by Wall Street’s reaction. Apple’s stock fell 1.9% yesterday. In what appears to be delayed reaction, Apple stock surged today. It jumped 7% to a new all time high. With today’s increase, Apple nearly regained the crown from Microsoft as the world’s most valuable company. Weighing in with a new market capitalization of $3.18 trillion, Apple is just behind Microsoft at $3.22 trillion.
Apple’s announcement of expanded efforts into AI, (Apple Intelligence) also revealed a partnership with OpenAI to make ChatGPT available on Apple devices without a subscription or log-in. One potential positive is Apple’s ecosphere, which extends into billions of devices. Any type of AI Apple incorporates has a big potential audience of people who can simply download the new technology. Investors learned yesterday that Apple’s AI features will be limited to iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, as well as certain iPad and Mac, models. The iPhone 15 debuted late last year, but many people still use earlier-generation phones and the iPhone 16 is expected to launch this fall. While some analysts say AI could drive a new iPhone upgrade cycle, that depends on whether users truly want the technology.
My sense of Apples AI strategy, at least based on yesterday’s announcement, is they intend to leverage Apple Intelligence to sell more iPhones. Let’s hope they do.
Call anytime you have questions. I am always happy to help.
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Blackhawk Asset Management
At BAM, we take the research we obtain from ERPE and utilize it to manage our clients’ assets. Our founder, John Gardner, CFP®, CPM®, offers high net worth investors experienced investment portfolio management based on a disciplined methodology. John is one of the nation's approximately 400 Certified Portfolio Managers and has managed billions of dollars in equity portfolios over his professional career since 1984. He has created four effective, proprietary portfolios: Thematic Growth, Strategic Income, Diversified Value, and Global Opportunity, which have helped clients prosper.
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Equity Research & Portfolio Evaluation
Equity Research & Portfolio Evaluation (ERPE) utilizes its propietary approach in analyzing investments. Its proven success researching equities is based on a blend of fundamental and technical analysis. ERPE's time-tested Top 10 Tenets guide the investment process to achieve Portfolio Optimization: This is through minimizing risk without sacrificing return.
