TFK Capitalist Thread

Markets tank after Fed announce rate increase and minor change in their outlook. There is a complete breakdown now between reality (we are going into a recession) and their short term goals (raising rates so they can drop them when a recession is confirmed). Dow has swung from +300 to -350 since Powell started talking. Trump is likely preparing his pink slip.

Trump apparently giving serious consideration to firing Fed chair Jerome Powell, which he can do under the oft forgotten “for cause” phrase in the Federal Reserve Act. Could liven the markets up a little.

Do you not think it’d terrify the markets? Political interference in rate setting will not end well

2 Likes

Could be his dumbest move yet

Dat wall do

Markets are already terrified, the Dow is down 1,500 points since Powell started speaking on Wednesday. Although there’s plenty to be worried about, the actions of the Fed are top of the list, not just raising interest rates but unloading their balance sheet. Much of the liquidity in the market since 2015 has been due to QE.

The Fed are repeating the same mistakes they have made throughout their history, blowing asset bubbles by keeping interest rates at or near zero for years, and then waiting far too long to normalize rates and normalizing them at exactly the wrong time. .

1 Like

Macron must be shitting himself

Apple have just announced that they will miss their Q1 revenue number ($84B versus an expected range of $89-93B), based on weak iPhone sales, particularly in China. Stock is down 8% in the aftermarket.
Expect some carnage tomorrow in the Tech sector.

1 Like

Tesla was hammered also. 8% down.

Very strong US December jobs report, 312K jobs added versus expectations of 180K. That dampens any recession talk for the moment so we should see markets stabilize here and rally at least until earnings season really gets underway.

the place was hopping when I was over, great news

1 Like

A badly needed correction. Valuations were very over stretched but I don’t think we need to fear a global down turn just yet.
Saw something today on apples iPhone sales, they were blaming it on a Chinese slow down but it seems Chinese consumers are just switching to Huwaei and other competitors.
Still think things are expensive though. Particularly tech

1 Like

Yeah. Some good value out there now though.

iphone has slipped to 4th most popular phone in China

The Chinese know their tech. They won’t be mugged off by the marketing

They do in their hoop. They are sheep and blindly do what they’re told. They’ve been told that buying Apple is unpatriotic.

1 Like

Apple’s announcement this week that China accounted for most of their revenue shortfall seems a bit suspect to me. They sell roughly $50B in China a year, even if that was all iPhones it’s $12.5B per quarter and their shortfall in Q1 was ($7B) from the midpoint of their own forecast. China may have seen the biggest decline, but I think the smartphone market is getting mature. The strategy of raising prices when the market for premium phones appears to be declining is a very bizarre one.

1 Like

There’s an aggressive anti-Technology theft bill making it’s way through the US Senate that will soften their cough.

Well if people don’t need to replace their phones as much (with Apple now finding it more difficult to slow people’s phones) then it hardly is, is it? They do have a very loyal fan base.

I personally don’t understand the video content creation move. I know they want to move into services but it’s outside of what they do well.

Amazon doing it reasonably well seems like an outlier to me, they are also a far younger company.