As readers will recall, one of the bullish catalysts that pushed the market off its August 24 ETFlash Crash lows was an email sent by Tim Cook to Jim Cramer of all people (one which still hasn’t been 8-K’ed), in which AAPL’s CEO said the following:
“I get updates on our performance in China every day, including this morning, and I can tell you that we have continued to experience strong growth for our business in China through July and August. Growth in iPhone activations has actually accelerated over the past few weeks, and we have had the best performance of the year for the App Store in China during the last 2 weeks.”
As we subsequently showed using channel check data from GfK looking at AAPL Chinese sell-throughs, the realty was vastly different.
Five months later, Tim Cook was forced to finally admit the truth when on last night’s conference call he said that “we began to see some signs of economic softness in Greater China earlier this month, most notably in Hong Kong.”
Alas, Cook was once again disingenuous by saying that softness appears only “earlier this month” because as we again showed in early in November, AAPL had cut component orders with its core suppliers by as much as 10%, a clear indication it was well aware of Chinese weakness ahead of time.
But all that is in the past, and what AAPL longs want now is some clarity that the future is not only stable but improving. Alas, they won’t get it.
According to Brightwire, one of China’s top online vendors, JD.com, has just cut the prices of Apple products by “as much as 17% in sale ahead of Chinese New Year” or precisely the time when there should be no need for heavy discounting.
As Brightwire adds, “JD.com cut prices of Apple products on the internet marketplace by as much as 17%, according to information on the JD website. Customers can also purchase Apple products in 12 monthly installments with no interest charges and no downpayment.”
Among the discounts, iPad Air tablet with 16GB memory is priced at CNY 2,399 (USD 365), compared with CNY 2,888 on the Apple online store in China. The iPhone 6s Plus handset with 64GB memory is priced at CNY 6,288, compared with the official price of CNY 6,888.
The special sale ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday will span from Jan. 27 to Feb. 5, according to JD.com. The internet company also gives out cash coupons for purchases of a certain amount.
The question is whether once the discount period runs out and the much neded demand fails to materialize, how much greater will AAPL’s margin-crushing discounts have to get for already waning top-line momentum to persist.
For many former AAPL bulls, the answer is irrelevant and with the stock now 30% from its all time highs, they have decided to pack up and leave.
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1SbKVJ4 Tyler Durden