September 10th, 2022 | Apple, Smart Phones, Retail Inflation, Shipping Cost, Middle East Oil, Germany, Inflation, MongoDB (MDB) & FAST Recovery Act

<p>Apple There are a few fund managers that I follow and respect their opinions. One of them is Dan Niles who is a Stanford University graduate in electrical engineering. He has focused on tech stocks for over 30 years, and I always enjoy his commentaries and analysis. I have continued to warn that I still believe Apple stock is too pricey. Dan runs a hedge fund so unlike my portfolio he can short stocks and take a bet on the downside. In a Barron’s article recently, Dan stated he owns Apple stock but after the iPhone 14 launches on September 7 he not only plans to sell the stock but short it as well. That is quite the commitment. If you hold Apple in your portfolio, you definitely need to reconsider your position. Smart Phones Shipment of smart phones around the world in the second quarter experienced a decline of 9% to 286 million units. If this continues in the third quarter, it could put downward pressure on the stocks of Apple and Samsung. Retail Inflation Good news on the inflation front. Retailers like Walmart, Nordstrom and Macy's are saying their inventories are building and they need to clean out their inventory to make room for holiday items. What that means is they’ll be cutting prices dramatically which will help ease inflation in certain areas and overall. We are no longer hearing about supply chain issues which means there is plenty of product and demand has eased so prices should decline. This will take a couple of months to pass through to the numbers, but they should start seeing good numbers just in time for the holiday season which will hopefully make consumers feel more positive and deliver a good holiday shopping season. The one wild card is still the price of oil and gas. Shipping Cost One of the big culprits that helped cause inflation was the huge increase in shipping costs. Remember all the disruptions and port backlogs?  Last September it cost around $20,000 to ship a 40-foot container from China to the US. That cost has now been cut by nearly 3/4 with the cost for shipping the same