Apple’s bitter sweet timing
DISAPPOINTMENT over the timing of Apple’s iPhone X release hampered further gains for world stock markets yesterday after an easing of concerns about North Korea sent indices to record highs.
With Tokyo gaining on a broadly weaker yen, MSCI’s main indicator of Asian shares hit a 10-year peak, but Europe’s main markets all dipped in early trade.
Apple suppliers including AMS, IQE and Dialog fell by 2 to 5 percent at the opening, with traders citing the later than expected November 3 shipping date for the new iPhone as the main reason.
That followed a small fall in Apple shares as Wall Street surged back to record highs on Tuesday.
“There has been just a minor retracement, hardly an indication of which way the European session will be headed today,” analysts from Italy’s Unicredit said in a morning note.
“If there is anything that surprises us equity bulls, it is the almost linear nature of the (global) move without severe setbacks.”
The pan-European STOXX 600 dipped 0.3 percent as weakness in chip makers was compounded by a drop in miners.
Chip makers have been the best-performing among Europe’s tech stocks this year, accounting for a large chunk of the sector’s outperformance. AMS shares have gained 165 percent year-todate. “The economics of the Apple announcement are interesting because it will really test this theory that inflation is going to be weak,” said Mike Bell, a JP Morgan Asset Management global market strategist in London.
“With the iPhone coming in at about $1 000 (R13 100) it will be interesting to see how healthy demand is. If it’s relatively healthy I think it shows that there is still quite a lot of pricing power for US companies and that consumers have confidence.”
In currency markets the dominant trend this week has been a recovery for the dollar and sterling.
The dollar hit a 12-day high above 110 yen in Asian time before easing back as traders awaited US inflation numbers today.
Britain’s pound hit a one-year high above $1.33 and a six-week high on a trade-weighted basis. “Now it’s ‘wait and see’ for dollar investors,” said Esther Reichelt, a strategist with Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
After a soft start in Europe, oil prices were marginally higher, with Opec’s expectations of higher demand next year countering reports of rising US crude stockpiles. – Reuters APPLE upgraded its Apple TV set-top box to handle higher-quality video as competition from Amazon.com, Roku, and Google heats up in the living room.
The new Apple model can stream 4K video, which is much higher resolution than standard 1 080p video, from the iTunes movie catalogue and other apps such as Netflix and Amazon’s video service, Apple said during an event on Tuesday at its new headquarters in Cupertino, California.
The box will also support HDR video, which shows a more accurate representation of colours. It starts at $179, versus $149 for the current model.
The new box will be available for order on September 15, Apple said. The updated box, called the Apple TV 4K, has a new processor that’s twice as fast as the existing box and four times faster for graphics.
Apple also previewed deeper integration of live television, allowing users to navigate between live news and sports streams via the company’s new TV app.
Apple has been trying for years to revolutionise TV in the same way it changed phones. But it has so far struggled to make a big impact.
The Apple TV is part of the company’s “Other Products” unit that accounts for just 6 percent of revenue.
However, the product is a key accessory to the iPhone and the centrepiece of Apple’s emerging video content strategy and services business.
Apple has pledged to invest $1 billion (R12.98bn) in original video.
Apple executive Eddy Cue said on Tuesday that all major movie studios have signed up to deliver 4K movies through the box.
All high-definition videos previously purchased from Apple will be upgraded for free to 4K, he added.
Apple overhauled the box in 2015, giving it a version of the iPhone’s operating system, a third-party app ecosystem via the App Store, a touch-based remote, and Siri voice control. Since then, the market for internet-connected set-top boxes has heated up.
Apple TV will have 21.3 million users this year, trailing numbers from Roku and Amazon boxes and Google Chromecasts, which will each top 35 million users, eMarketer estimates. – Bloomberg