Listen to me very closely. When markets jimmied higher the other day, based on the faux news of Trump avoiding a shut down, a small little company named AMKR posted results. I discussed this in detail in Capstone and I’ll share it with you now.
Amkor makes parts of the smartphone and auto industries, chips rather. They said, heading into 2019, the smartphone market, or at least their exposure to it, undertook a disastrous 30% drop in sales. This of course would mirror what the retail sales out today just communicated. Additionally, they said one of their auto clients was undergoing an inventory correction — which should last until the second half. Initially, the stock fell 9%, but then quickly recovered and traded sharply higher based on the following comments.
I’m paraphrasing here, so bear with me.
They said their IOS clients (Apple) foresee Q2 as being better than Q1 and the second half even better than the first. In other words, the worst is behind us, apparently. Isn’t that what we all wanted to know — the state of things at Apple?
Could they be wrong? Maybe. Perhaps Apple will update us in March and illuminate a grim picture for us. Or, maybe they’ll confirm what AMKR already told us.
One thing is for certain — markets had already priced in a bad Q4 for 2018, which is why the market melted down. Today’s revelation is old news and not indicative of future results.
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on TwitterRetail sales fell 1.2 percent in December, marking their biggest monthly drop since September 2009, according to The Commerce Department. The department also said retail sales fell 0.9 percent in December when excluding gasoline station sales.
“This number was terrible,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group, in a note. “The US consumer is holding the global economy on its shoulders. After seeing today’s data, we better hope it was a one month outlier and that the rebound in stocks in January and month to date will revive consumer spending.”
