By:
On:
In: Around the web
Tagged:
With: 0 Comments

Few chip companies are more plugged in to the iPhone than Cirrus Logic [stckqut]CRUS[/stckqut]. Whether that is a good thing or not is a matter of timing.

Take the last few weeks for example. The Wall Street Journal reported on June 21 that Apple is planning to remove the standard headphone jack from its next iPhone. That confirmed some previous leaks by gadget blogs from earlier in the year. It also helped Cirrus’s stock top the $40 mark for the first time in nearly four years.

That is because Cirrus is likely the prime beneficiary for such a move, given that its encoding and amplifier chips would be needed for a new class of digital headphones that would plug into the iPhone’s Lightning port. It is a substantial new opportunity as the iPhone now ships more than 200 million units every year.

Source: Cirrus Logic: Plugged In to the iPhone Cycle – WSJ

By:
On:
In: Around the web
Tagged:
With: 0 Comments

Phil Schiller, Apple’s [stckqut]AAPL[/stckqut] senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said that Apple would soon alter its revenue-sharing model for apps. While the well-known 70 / 30 split will remain, developers who are able to maintain a subscription with a customer longer than a year will see Apple’s cut drop down to 15 percent. The option to sell subscriptions will also be available to all developers instead of just a few kinds of apps.

If the new subscription model becomes widely adopted, it will represent a fundamental shift in the economics of the App Store. Developers will be incentivized to sell their apps for a recurring fee instead of a one-time cost. It could change the way consumers pay for certain apps, but it also presents a massive opportunity for developers, many of whom feel the app economy has become moribund in recent years. And as iPhone sales growth slows, a move to app subscriptions is another way for Apple to wring more profits from its existing user base.

Apple is also going to start showing search ads for apps in its iOS App Store search results for the first time, something the company had previously resisted.

Source: APP STORE 2.0 | The Verge

By:
On:
In: Around the web
With: 0 Comments

Investors are putting record amounts of money into exchange-traded funds as bonds become increasingly difficult to buy and sell.

Global fixed-income ETFs, which track bond indexes and trade like stocks, attracted $60 billion of inflows this year through May 25, according to data compiled by BlackRock Inc. That’s the most for the period since the funds were created 14 years ago and on pace to top last year’s record total of $93.5 billion.

The funds are emerging as one of the few winners from worsening trading conditions as dealers pull back from making markets and investors seek cheaper ways to take and hedge credit exposure. Liquidity and ease of use are the top reasons given by about 70 percent of bond ETF users, according to a report by Greenwich Associates.

Fixed-income ETFs manage about $576 billion of global assets, ranging from Treasuries to high-yield corporate bonds and emerging-market debt. BlackRock, the biggest provider of the funds, started Europe’s first ETF for mortgage-backed securities last month.

Source: Wall Street Turns to ETFs to Sidestep Illiquidity in Bond Market – Bloomberg

By:
On:
In: Around the web
With: 0 Comments

Apple store photo

Anyone considering an investment in Apple [stckqut]AAPL[/stckqut] stock faces a challenge. The company is huge, its shares are volatile, and its moves are widely followed on Wall Street.

Yet still, this is a good time to buy shares of Apple.

In fact, you may already have a stake in the tech titan if you own a S&P 500 index fund. As a market-cap weighted index, the S&P’s largest position is Apple, with a market value of around $550 billion that is worth more than the 90 smallest S&P 500 components combined.

And for those who are bullish on this stock, it appears that once again, Apple has found a short-term bottom. The chartists have been pleased with the stock’s recent performance, the Wall Street analysts have issued upgrades. Beyond that, here’s what’s working in favor of Apple:

  1. Bargain valuation
  2. Dividend and dividend-growth
  3. Buffett’s billion-dollar bet
  4. No news isn’t bad news
  5. Software innovation, not hardware innovation
  6. Value is hot, growth is not

Objectively, those who shorted Apple or bought puts on the stock a few months ago made smart moves. But that doesn’t mean that long-term or even medium-term investors should consider the stock perpetual fodder for the bears. Indeed, if you’re investing for tax-efficient capital gains and long-term dividend growth potential, enjoy your Apple.

Source: Why Apple shares are ripe for picking – MarketWatch

Photo by Oswaldo Rubio

By:
On:
In: Around the web
With: 0 Comments

By the time you finish reading this sentence, an electronic high-frequency trader can send out thousands of buy or sell orders. Why, then, does it take up to three days — and occasionally far longer — for investors to receive cash when they sell and securities when they buy?

Under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, stock trades must “settle” — with the buyer delivering cash and the seller handing over the securities — no later than three business days afterward. By September 2017, they should settle within two days after the trade. Fortunately, in the meantime, you don’t have to settle for snail-like delivery.

Until 1892, messenger boys used to scramble through the streets of lower Manhattan lugging sacks of gold, bank checks and stock and bond certificates. When the settlement time of 2:15 p.m. approached, pedestrians risked life and limb as swarms of delivery boys plowed their way toward the cashier windows at the biggest banks. Without a single computer or cellphone, thousands of stock and bond trades regularly settled one day after they were made.

Overnight settlement was standard practice until the 1930s, says Bernard McSherry, interim dean of the NJCU School of Business in Jersey City, N.J., who worked as a broker on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for four decades through 2005. The settlement period lengthened to two days in 1938 and three in 1946. Then, in 1968, with average daily volume swelling above 10 million shares and Wall Street drowning in paperwork, trades began settling on a five-day lag — where the limit stayed until the SEC lowered it to three days in 1995.

Still, the U.S. stock market trades fast, but settles slowly. Many European stock markets have already moved to two-day settlement. Stock options have long settled one day after the trade, and China’s stock markets require same-day settlement.

Progress has been slow primarily because of inertia and the intrinsic complexity of a system that handles billions of trades and trillions of dollars a day.

Source: Why Wait Three Days to Get Your Cash After You Trade? – MoneyBeat – WSJ