Cowen Upgrades Apple, Cites OLED as Growth Driver

The indomitable Apple caught an upgrade this morning by the pencil pushers at Cowen, who cite OLED as a growth driver for 2017. Moreover, they suggest the company will unveil some ‘dreamy’ form factors.

This is pure bullshit, a ploy to get publicity for their 4th tier investment bank.

Via Briefing.com

Cowen upgrades AAPL to Outperform from Market Perform and raises their tgt to $135 from $125. Y/Y compares and forward estimates have bottomed, iPhone 7 will benefit if nothing else from the 6/6+ “echo” effect as these units enter the upgrade base, OLED in ’17 solves growth concerns + builds a bridge to new “dreamy” form factors, and valuation provides a solid backstop. Firm now believes co could adopt OLED in ’17 for all new flagship iPhone, not just high-end “niche” model. This potentially equates to ~80-100MM+ units w/some flexible rigid design likely, migrating to full flexible in ’18. Additionally, while they see CQ1 revenue biased toward the low-end of $50-53B rev guidance given ongoing 6S softness, it is hard to see rev below the low end with FX modeling also suggesting ~100-150bps better than assumed in AAPL guide.

Bill Gross is out with a love letter this morning, addressed to the central banks of the world who think negative interest rates are this cool and innovative new tool to help solve their problems. He warns that very soon capital gains will become ‘giant pandas’ and that GDPs need to start inching upwards, otherwise they’re all inexorably fucked.

“Capital gains and the expectations for future gains will become Giant Pandas – very rare and sort of inefficient at reproduction,” Gross said. “I’m saying that developed and emerging economies are flying at stall speed and they’ve got to bump up nominal GDP growth rates or else. Cross your fingers.”

Gross warned against investing in negative-yielding securities.

“The real market and the real economy await a different conclusion as losses from negative rates result in capital losses, not capital gains,” he said. “Investors cannot make money when money yields nothing. Unless… nominal GDP can be raised to levels that allow central banks to normalize short-term interest rates, then south instead of north is the logical direction for markets.”

Normalize rates or die, in plain terms.

It was a trap. As a matter of fact, it has always been a trap.

Markets are designed to trade higher with population growth. The more stuff we make and buy, the higher stock prices go.

Over in Europe, equity prices are rejoicing, as Islamic migrants rampage throughout their cities in search for treasure.

Here in the good old USA, futures are indicating a triple digit run to new highs.

In the land of Le Fly, just one man is king. Said royalty will be dealing with a rather arduous plumbing issue today. Very soon, I will be entreated to the dirties men alive rampaging through my home, punching holes in my sheetrock–behaving like regular Donkey Kongs.

It’s all for the greater good, so I’ll grit my teeth and bear the downside.

As for stocks, my SPY long will offset some of the losses I stand to endure in my XLE short. It’s worth noting, Exodus won again…inexorably.

Both the democratic and republican parties are crime families. There is no difference between the Italian mafia and the GOP, other than the fact that in most Italian crime families there is a code of honor amongst thieves.

News is buzzing all over the internet that D. Trump just announced he’d no longer support another GOP candidate for President.

Well, in light of the fact that it’s a mathematical impossibility for any of them to defeat him, pray tell, why should he?

This is absolute lunacy that all of the media outlets are running this as news, without stating the obvious. The GOP are actively and openly trying to deny the public of their choice for presidential candidate.

Trump should just win all of the primaries, then go to the convention and resign from the party, right there on the floor, throwing two middle fingers in the air and run as a third party candidate.

I am 100% fine with Hillary becoming President, as long as the GOP is completely and utterly destroyed in the process.

The media was foaming at the mouth today, on the pomp announcement that Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was arrested for assaulting Michelle Fields.

Before you watch the video that was produced by Trump of the crime, read Michelle’s letter, penned on 3/10/16.

I never sought to be part of the story.

On Tuesday night, I went to cover Donald Trump’s press conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida. I was looking to cover the event like I have covered many live political events for Breitbart News, including an uneventful Trump press conference in Palm Beach the week before.

Addressing the gathered reporters and the nation at large, Trump was in an especially jovial mood Tuesday night. The networks just declared he had won the Mississippi Republican primary and, during his speech, that he won Michigan Republican primary as well.

I wasn’t called upon to ask a question during the televised press conference, but afterwards Trump wandered around, stopping at every reporter to take their questions. When he approached me, I asked him about his view on an aspect of affirmative action.

Trump acknowledged the question, but before he could answer I was jolted backwards. Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground, but was able to maintain my balance. Nonetheless, I was shaken.

The Washington Post’s Ben Terris immediately remarked that it was Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who aggressively tried to pull me to the ground. I quickly turned around and saw Lewandowski and Trump exiting the building together. No apology. No explanation for why he did this.

Even if Trump was done taking questions, Lewandowski would be out of line. Campaign managers aren’t supposed to try to forcefully throw reporters to the ground, no matter the circumstance. But what made this especially jarring is that there was no hint Trump was done taking questions. No one was pushing him to get away. He seemed to have been happily answering queries from my fellow reporters just a moment before.

Many people have been asking me on Twitter and in emails what exactly happened Tuesday night. I hope this article answers those questions and I can get back to reporting the news, not being a part of it.

Okay now here’s the footage of Corey trying to forcefully drag Michelle to the ground.

Trump had this to say about the horrid crime.

“I’m very glad that we were able to produce the tape because I don’t see anything. I see virtually nothing,” he told Hannity. “And we’re going to destroy a man’s life over this?”

“If I had not have produced the tape, it would have been much worse,” Trump told Hannity. “Because look at the statement she made, I had to write it down, ‘forcefully thrown reporters to the ground, campaign managers aren’t supposed to forcefully throw campaign managers to the ground’. What ground? I mean, if you look at her face, her expression doesn’t even change.”

“She grabbed me and she had something in her hand, I don’t know what it was,” Trump told Hannity. “It looked like it could have been a pen. But you know, from the standpoint of where we are, who knows what it is. So she grabs me and then he maybe brushed her aside, and we’re going to destroy his life for that? I don’t think so.”

The fuckheads over at the Cruz camp took a very typical position.

“Unfortunately, this abusive behavior seems to be part of the culture of the Trump campaign. Personal attacks, verbal attacks, and now physical attacks have no place in politics or anywhere else in our society,” campaign spokeswoman Alice Stewart said in a statement.

What sort of chicanery is this? Do these people think we do not have eyes in our heads to see this is bogus? It’s one thing to dislike Trump and want to beat him. It’s entirely another thing to try to ruin some guy’s life because he’s a means to an end.

These politicians are going to burn in hell.

Considering we’re the marginal buyer of all of their crap, I’d say this is more of a rebuke of our goldilocks story than theirs.

Output slumped 6.2 percent after rising 3.7 percent in January, the trade ministry said on Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 5.9 percent drop.

“Exports remained weak amid a slowdown in demand in China and other emerging Asian nations,” Yasuhiro Takahashi, an economist at Nomura Securities in Tokyo, said before the data. Even taking out the impact of Toyota, overall production was weak, and the economy is at risk of contracting again this quarter, he said.

Japanese GDP is forecasted to come in at 0.6%. Should it post a negative number, it would represent a recession for the Japanese economy, the second since Abe took power in 2012.

So much for Abenomics.

Does anyone see how stupid this line of work is, or is it just me? Just the other day, consensus opinion was building around an April Fed rate hike and most assuredly one in June. Now, post Yellen speech part two, all previously scheduled rate hikes have been henceforth canceled and your local magistrate will enact the ancient law of prima nocta, declaring ‘first rights’ to your bride on her wedding night.

Fuck this shit.

NOTE: If anyone wants to give blogging a shot, email me [email protected]. Be sure to let me know your Twitter handle.

This is rudimentary stuff, taught in the very first class of economics 101. But it bears repeating, since many people still don’t seem to grasp what’s taking place here. Because the Fed is opting for a lower rate environment, inherently, that means the economy and the global economies that were now serve, are WEAK, not strong. Each and every time a Fed official gets on the teevee and tell you that the economy is doing terrific and how American exceptionalism is causing us to outpace the catamites in Europe, they are lying.

We all suspected China was building some sort of copper weapon to destroy democracy and free will. While we haven’t sorted out the exact details, thus far, there is incontrovertible evidence suggesting that they’ve been hoarding Dr. Copper like abject morons, much to the detriment of investors who bought the whole global growth ruse–hook, line and sinker.

According to Hoffman and Gilmartin, real copper demand from China is 54% lower than what has been previously reported.

The Chinese have been using copper to engage in trade, in some a backwardly barter system caused by the stupid nature of the Chinese financial fraud that we support today.

The decline in Chinese copper demand for household appliances and electronics since 2011 doesn’t jibe with the headline demand statistics, the analysts note, which show the country’s total copper demand increased of 45 percent from 2011 to 2015.

Moreover, when benchmarked against cement—another material widely used for construction purposes—copper’s rapid rise in China looks particularly suspicious. While cement intensity, or percentage used per square meter, rose 11 percent in the time period, copper intensity surged an astounding 117 percent.

Putting all this together, Hoffman and Gilmartin conclude that “real Chinese demand may be 54 percent lower than anticipated” after stripping out the demand for copper tied to the carry trade.

This is astounding, really. The discrepancy between faux demand and actual demand is in the order of 7 million metric tonnes. But, no worries, the Chinese have just enacted policy that will permit their pension funds to invest in common stocks.

After all, what could go wrong?

If you’re encumbered by a slew of higher interest rate plays, you might need to switch your policy–post Yellen’s dovish speech. I suppose people didn’t believe her during her last testimony, especially following the speeches of her lieutenants. I think it’s fair to say there is a schism at the Fed, two distinct parties with varying views on monetary policy.

As markets rise to daily highs, the Dow up triple digits and the NASDAQ higher by more than 70, underneath the surface of this rally is a depraved scramble for yield.

Gold is higher, due to a seemingly easy American central bank strategy.

Gold stocks are, by far, the biggest winners of the day. The sector, as a whole, is higher by more than 5%.

Without the specter of higher rates, asset allocators are racing towards the safety of U.S. treasuries, whose yields are considerably higher than our European counterparts.

The dollar has fallen by the wayside. Yellen has mentioned the stronger dollar as something of an albatross. The currency wars are here to stay.

Utilities continue to outshine every sector in the market, year to date. With gains in excess of 16%, utilities continue to attract investors who’ve shed their books of energy related dividend payers, in favor of something a bit less toxic.

The market’s devotion to every syllable of what the Fed says never ceases to amaze me. Come tomorrow, there might be a hawkish Fed comment that shifts today’s dichotomy. But for now, it appears the market will be supported by a globalist Federal Reserve policy, one that offers succor to multi-nationals and preys upon European exporters.

At some point, actual profits and actual revenue growth will matter. For now, we can all pretend that every ailment of the economy has been remedied and lower interest rates is precisely all we need to permit XYZ to beat analyst earnings expectations.