Apple's JV Product Unveil

Thursday, March 21, 2019 by Snacks
"Miranda, someone's wearing the same Airpods as you"

"Miranda, someone's wearing the same Airpods as you"

Yesterday’s Market Moves
Dow Jones
25,746 (-0.55%)
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7,729 (+0.07%)
Bitcoin
$4,021 (+1.18%)
10-Yr US Treasury
2.525%

Hey Snackers,

We're concerned that 92% of the kale we eat's dressed with pesticides.

The Fed's more worried about the economy. Stocks dipped Wednesday on word the central bank thinks growth mojo may be slipping.

Stay

1. The Fed says interest rates probably won't rise this year

One of America's most powerful not-elected people... is Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (the guy who calls your number at the DMV is 2nd). Jerry announced Wednesday the Fed is not raising interest rates because the economy's not too hot — it thinks GDP will only grow 2.1% this year, not the 2.3% first expected.

A strong economy needs to be brought down a tad... and increasing interest rates usually does the trick: People simply can't borrow as easily to splurge when rates are higher. But the Fed's stopped increasing rates:

  • In December it raised its "one rate to rule them all" by 0.25% to 2.5%. It then predicted 2 more increases in 2019
  • Those raises haven't happened. And most of the Fed's 17 decision-makers don't think rates need to be hiked this year at all.
THE TAKEAWAY

Inflation's being really weird... The US economy's been growing since the '08 financial crisis and the unemployment rate's historically low. But for some reason prices aren't rising like they should in a strong economy. Maybe it's Amazon, Netflix, and Uber driving prices of things down. Economists simply aren't sure.

Launched

2. Apple's wireless charging AirPods cap its product-palooza

The jewelry of Silicon Valley... are the new $159 AirPods you wish were all up in your ears. Apple just unveiled them. And unlike your ancient 2017 AirPods, they do this:

  • Speak with Siri by voice straight through them, so she's in your ears all day, e'ry day.
  • Wirelessly charge if you upgrade to the new, magical wireless-charging case for a smooth $40 more.
  • Connect via Bluetooth way faster, so no more annoying waiting when you're just trying to get Spotify going before your run.

Do less, Apple... These new AirPods were its 3rd product unveil this week. First, they hit us with new iPads and then Apple updated iMacs for the first time in two years. By the way, you busy Monday? Apple's got a bigger launch event planned, expected to be its "Netflix Killer."

THE TAKEAWAY

The art of the pivot... Apple's making it. Sales in its wearables biz (including AirPods) jumped 35% last year — But they still only make up 6% of all revenues. The iPhone? It's 66%. But since iPhone sales, the pride-of-Cupertino, are slowing, Apple's trying to make services and anything else happen (like "fetch").

What else we’re Snackin’

  • Dominant: Alphabet fined another 1.5B euros by the EU for abusing its online ad monopoly
  • Profile: Facebook ends its practice of selling ads aggressively targeted at your race, gender, or age group
  • Sold: Opendoor raises $300M more in quest to Amazon-ify real estate
  • GameOver: Sony and Nintendo sink after Google's gaming unveil
  • Roundup: Bayer stock falls 9% as another jury says its weed killer can cause cancer

Thursday

  • Levi's IPOs with its very own stock ticker symbol "LEVI" (then it won't wash itself for 2 months)
  • Earnings from Darden Restaurants (that's the Olive Garden owner) and Nike
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