Russell Shor

On Friday, Microsoft (MSFT.us) passed Apple (AAPL.us) as the world’s most valuable company. Microsoft’s value is $2.89 trillion, whilst Apple’s is $2.78 trillion. Over the last 12 months, Microsoft has rallied almost 63% against Apples 40%. This has effectively ended Apple’s more than 500 days as the highest valued company in the world, with Microsoft last holding the spot in November 2021.

Netflix (NFLX.us) has surpassed 23 million global active users on its ad-based plan. This is a sharp increase from November when the company said it had 15 million active users on its less expensive plan. More information will be available on 23 January when the company releases its Q4 earnings.

The market is eagerly waiting for an announcement by the SEC on whether spot Bitcoin ETFs will be approved. This led to an incident yesterday where the SEC’s X account was accessed, and a fake comment was posted claiming that approval had been given. This fuelled a brief surge in Bitcoin’s price, where it climbed to almost $48,000 per coin. However, the cryptocurrency dropped to $45,000 after it emerged that…

The SPX500 is in bullish mode. It is above its black 30-week EMA, with the EMA pointing up. Its momentum-based RSI is above 50 (green rectangle), denoting a positive underlying momentum. However, there is a resistance area around 4,800 (red rectangle).

Apple (AAPL.us) shares have stalled into 2024 since being downgraded by Barclay's analyst Tim Long (neutral to underweight). The basis for the downgrade was weak hardware sales as iPhone 15 demand disappoints. In his note to clients, Long says that "We are still picking up weakness on iPhone volumes and mix, as well as a lack of bounce-back in Macs, iPads and wearables," with "worse data points out of China,…

In a report, Bank of America analysts led by Justin Post, suggest that advertising revenue growth is a distinct possibility, coming from the addition of adverts to Prime Video this month and from other advertising partnerships.

There is a relationship between the 10-year real rate and the SPX500. The correlation coefficient between the two is a robust -87%. I.e. they generally travel together but in opposite directions. This makes sense given the time value of money of the SPX500, where a lower real rate will tend to support the stock market.

Bitcoin is currently trading around $45,280. This is the highest level the cryptocurrency has traded at since April 2022. The price support is due to market anticipation of an approval for a spot bitcoin exchange trade fund.

Alphabet (GOOG.us) is trading at levels last seen in April 2022, with $145.00 being regarded as overhead resistance (red vertical line). There are some promising technical developments, which if maintained, should see GOOG.us overcome this overhead resistance.

UK headline CPI printed at 3.9%, much lower than the previous print of 4.6%, and below the forecast of 4.3%. The decline is broad-based, and the Bank of England (BoE) will note the moderation in services inflation. This has fuelled speculation that the BoE will cut rates next year. In this regard, British bond yields declined on the inflation news.

Apple will stop selling two versions of its smartwatch in the US. This is because the US International Trade Commission found that these violate a patent held by medical technology group Masimo.