Apple cuts iPhone 5 screen orders by 50%

[Red Storm]

It turns out that this is old news. It just looks like they really over-ordered for this quarter, for whatever reason.

Isn't that called "actual demand lower than expected demand?"

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Why doesn't an Apple spokesman come out and squash these rumors?

Can't.

SEC rules prohibit Apple from talking publicly about the company. This is known as a quiet period and all publicly traded companies must adhere to these rules.

http://www.loopinsight.com/2013/01/...rumors-of-iphone-5-cuts-even-if-it-wanted-to/

Let's just wait until they announce their quarterly earnings on the 23rd.

 

[Mopetar]

Can't. http://www.loopinsight.com/2013/01/...rumors-of-iphone-5-cuts-even-if-it-wanted-to/

Let's just wait until they announce their quarterly earnings on the 23rd.

There were some people speculating that this was about manipulating the value of Apple's stock, which would be a lot easier to do if the company were unable to disclose any information related to a rumor.

If Apple ends up having a good quarter the stock price could jump up following the earnings announcement. In that case it would be beneficial if someone were able to drive the price down before the announcement in order to maximize any profit when they sell after the announcement.

Apparently the SEC is investigating into that possibility.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

There were some people speculating that this was about manipulating the value of Apple's stock, which would be a lot easier to do if the company were unable to disclose any information related to a rumor.

If Apple ends up having a good quarter the stock price could jump up following the earnings announcement. In that case it would be beneficial if someone were able to drive the price down before the announcement in order to maximize any profit when they sell after the announcement.

Apparently the SEC is investigating into that possibility.

Seriously. I hope the SEC really clamps down on this. The majority of the people who are releasing this information are analysts and are either profiting from it or are working for the people who are profiting from it.

 

[lothar]

Can't. http://www.loopinsight.com/2013/01/...rumors-of-iphone-5-cuts-even-if-it-wanted-to/

Let's just wait until they announce their quarterly earnings on the 23rd.

The source he cited contain quite a number of exceptions to the "quiet period" rule.
You mean as smart as Apple's lawyers are, they can't figure out these SEC exceptions and prevent their stock from tanking due to baseless speculations?

When the rumor about RIMM losing subscriber count came out which tanked their stock to the $6 range, they refuted it immediately and since then their stock has been on a tear.

On June 29, 2005, the Commission voted to adopt modifications to the registration, communications, and offering processes under the Securities Act of 1933. Among many other provisions, the rules update and liberalize permitted offering activity and communications to allow more information to reach investors by revising the "gun-jumping" provisions under the Securities Act. The cumulative effects of these rules are as follows:

Well-known seasoned issuers are permitted to engage at any time in oral and written communications, including use at any time of a new type of written communication called a "free writing prospectus," subject to enumerated conditions (including, in some cases, filing with the Commission).

All reporting issuers are, at any time, permitted to continue to publish regularly released factual business information and forward-looking information.

Non-reporting issuers are, at any time, permitted to continue to publish factual business information that is regularly released and intended for use by persons other than in their capacity as investors or potential investors.

Communications by issuers more than 30 days before filing a registration statement will be permitted so long as they do not reference a securities offering that is the subject of a registration statement.

All issuers and other offering participants will be permitted to use a free writing prospectus after the filing of the registration statement, subject to enumerated conditions (including, in some cases, filing with the Commission).
Offering participants, other than the issuer, will be liable for a free writing prospectus only if they use, refer to, or participate in the planning and use of the free writing prospectus by another offering participant who uses it.
Issuers will have liability for any issuer information contained in any other offering participant's free writing prospectus as well as any free writing prospectus they prepare, use, or refer to.

The exclusions from the definition of prospectus are expanded to allow a broader category of routine communications regarding issuers, offerings, and procedural matters, such as communications about the schedule for an offering or about account-opening procedures.

The exemptions for research reports are expanded.

 

[ControlD]

The source he cited contain quite a number of exceptions to the "quiet period" rule.
You mean as smart as Apple's lawyers are, they can't figure out these SEC exceptions and prevent their stock from tanking due to baseless speculations?

Why do you assume that a temporary decline in the stock price is a bad thing for Apple? They are sitting on a ton of cash reserves right now, and a chance to buy back some of their stock at a (relative) bargain price is probably a good thing for them business wise. Losing the #1 market cap ranking means nothing to them except bragging rights.

 

[lothar]

There were some people speculating that this was about manipulating the value of Apple's stock, which would be a lot easier to do if the company were unable to disclose any information related to a rumor.

If Apple ends up having a good quarter the stock price could jump up following the earnings announcement. In that case it would be beneficial if someone were able to drive the price down before the announcement in order to maximize any profit when they sell after the announcement.

Apparently the SEC is investigating into that possibility.

This would be interesting how the SEC would pursue this and reach a conclusion.
This information was probably leaked by someone at Sharp or Japan Display, neither of which are US securities or registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission(at least I know Japan Display is not) to a Japanese analyst(that probably works for a private Japanese investment bank or financial firm), who then leaked it to the Nikkei newspaper(the equivalent of the WSJ in Japan and Financial Times in the UK), which the WSJ then published and cited in their report.

Once it's released in a newspaper(Nikkei and WSJ), it should now be considered "public" information since almost everyone now knows about it.
But I'm not quite sure how the SEC would look between supply chains and prior to the Nikkei newspaper publication.

Now if there's anyone that sold their stock prior to this negative release, they definitely should be investigated further.
But people who bought Apple stock after this negative news and plan to sell after their earnings report? That would be interesting to prove given most analysts have been reducing both Apple's stock price targets and earnings estimates. Apparently, these "few" people are bullish while majority of other analysts are either becoming more neutral or becoming bearish.

This would be equivalent to a hedge fund shorting a stock, announcing it to the world publicly a week later that they are which tanks the stock, then buys to cover their short immediately after the company stock tanks and earns a profit.
Is such a thing illegal?

 

[Aikouka]

I was at a friend's house last night with a strong 4G signal and got 29mbps on Speedtest. It doesn't make that much of a difference to me over the 5-8 I usually see with 3G, but it's still pretty cool.

I like the speed increase and the latency difference. I went from 4Mbps at 150-200ms latency to 20Mbps at 50ms latency! 50ms latency is only ~15-20ms off my cable Internet connection at home.