Day: January 11, 2024

Microsoft on Thursday briefly overtook Apple as the world’s most valuable company for the first time since 2021 after the iPhone maker’s shares made a weak start to the year on growing concerns over demand.

Microsoft’s shares have risen sharply since last year thanks to the early lead the company has taken in generative artificial intelligence through an investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. They were up 0.7% on Thursday, giving Microsoft a market value of $2.865 trillion.

The stock rose as much as 2% earlier in the session and Microsoft was briefly worth $2.903 trillion.

Shares of Apple were 0.9% lower, giving the company a market capitalization of $2.871 trillion. Microsoft and Apple have jostled for top spot over the years.

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“It was inevitable that Microsoft would overtake Apple since Microsoft is growing faster and has more to benefit from the generative AI revolution,” said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria.

Microsoft has incorporated OpenAI’s technology across its suite of productivity software, a move that helped spark a rebound in its cloud-computing business in the July-September quarter.

Apple, meanwhile, has been grappling with weakening demand, including for the iPhone, its biggest cash cow. Demand in China, a major market, has slumped as the country’s economy makes a slow recovery from the pandemic and a resurgent Huawei chips away at its market share.

“China could be a drag on performance over the coming years,” brokerage Redburn Atlantic said in a client note on Wednesday, downgrading Apple’s shares to “neutral”.

At least three of the 41 analysts covering Apple have lowered their ratings since the start of 2024.

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The Cupertino, California-based company has fallen 3.3% in January as of last close, compared with a 1.8% rise in Microsoft.

Both the stocks are expensive in terms of their share price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, a common method of valuing publicly listed companies.

Apple is trading at a forward PE of 28, well above its average of 19 over the past 10 years, according to LSEG data. Microsoft is trading around 31 times forward earnings, above its 10-year average of 24.

Shares of Apple, whose market capitalization peaked at $3.081 trillion on Dec. 14, ended last year with a gain of 48%. That was lower than the 57% rise posted by Microsoft.

Microsoft has briefly taken the lead over Apple as the most valuable company a handful of times since 2018, including in 2021 when concerns about COVID-driven supply chain shortages hit the iPhone maker’s stock price.

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Currently, Wall Street is more positive on Microsoft. The company has no “sell” rating and nearly 90% of the brokerages covering the company recommend buying the stock.

Apple has two “sell” ratings and only two-thirds of the analysts covering the company rate it a “buy”.

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Donald Trump had a big night last night at the Fox town hall. He looked and sounded presidential. He stayed on message with key policies while Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis spent two hours frying each other’s brains out, to no purpose whatsoever. Very few people watched that debate.

Those that did will walk away in a foul mood. My guess is Mr. Trump gained a lot of votes in Iowa and New Hampshire, while those two lost a lot in Iowa and New Hampshire. In what I thought was the turning point in the Trump town hall last night, and maybe one of the turning points in his entire campaign, was this moment. Take a listen:

DONALD TRUMP: I’m not going to have time for retribution. We’re going to make this country so successful again. I’m not going to have time for retribution, and remember this: Our ultimate retribution is success.

“Our ultimate retribution will be our success.” If he stays with that line, it is absolutely fantastic. It’s a great line. It completely turns the tables on all these phony Joe Biden arguments about democracy, insurrection, dictatorships and retribution. What former President Trump was saying is that our successful performance will be our calling card, and over and over in the town hall, he managed to stay with that theme and avoided grievances and negativity.

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His first actions on day one? He’s talking about opening the fossil fuel spigots to produce more liquid gold. Not only to conquer inflation at home, but defund our enemies like Russia and Iran overseas. Secondly, on day one, he’s going to close the border, restore Remain in Mexico, Title 42, build the wall, start deporting illegals and go back to the successes of his first term.

He will cut taxes. He will wipe out Biden’s regulatory assault on small businesses. He will restore prosperity and national security. He did it once, he would like another chance to do it a second time, even better.

It was a positive, optimistic message. He teased everybody by saying, yeah, he already knows who his vice president is going to be, but he ain’t talking just yet about specifics. Yes, he is willing to mend fences, already praising Chris Christie for mercifully dropping out of the race.

What about the charge of chaos? President Trump calmly reminded the crowd that it’s the Bidens creating chaos. Chaos at the border. Chaos with their appeasement and foreign policy weaknesses.

Chaos with Israel in the Middle East, where there was peace during the Trump years. Trump said, time and time again, by the way, that no new wars were started under his first term. Chaos in Afghanistan. Chaos in the schools and the lawless streets and the two-tiered justice system and its election year interference.

Is there a dictator? Trump is not the one trying to keep Biden off of state ballots. It’s the other way around, isn’t it? Retribution? Trump never went after Hillary Clinton, though he could have in his first term. Nor did he go after James Comey — remember him? Or Peter Strzok. Or Lisa Page. Or Adam Schiff. Or any of the crazy, phony, lying Russian hoax people, but he didn’t go after any of them. Remember?

Some folks might want to remember that, and how different Trump was from Joe Biden. I dare say — for anybody watching Mr. Trump’s town hall last night who can step back from the details and specifics, what you saw was a president, a leader, a man of experience who knows how to handle tough issues, crowds, interviewers, foreign leaders, and economic problems. He’s a strong leader. Trump tough. He’s done this before. He’ll be even better the next time.

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the January 11, 2024, edition of “Kudlow.” 

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The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) unveiled a deal with an artificial intelligence gaming company this week that allows the licensing of digital replicas of actors’ voices, and some members are not happy about it.

SAG-AFTRA announced the agreement with Replica Studios in a blog post on Tuesday, saying the contract allows Replica to work with voice actors in the union to create and license a digital replica of performers’ voices to be used in games.

“With this agreement, we have achieved fully informed consent and fair compensation when it comes to the use of our members’ voices and performances,” SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in a statement.

“We are proud to work with Replica in leading the way to make it easy for these companies to access SAG-AFTRA’s world-renowned talent in an ethical manner that ensures consent and fair compensation for their contributions,” he added.

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SAG-AFTRA’s blog post stated that its agreement with Replica was “approved by affected members of the union’s [voice-over] performer community,” but a number of prominent gaming voice actors felt “blindsided” by the deal and are furious over it, according to BBC News.

The outlet reported that Guinness World Records-holder Steve Blum, whose voice is featured in more than 300 game appearances, said that “‘nobody’ he knew of had approved the deal,” and World of Warcraft voice actor Andrew Russell referred to the agreement as “garbage.”

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The BBC went on to report that Shelby Young, a voice actor featured in the forthcoming “Persona 3: Reload,” said she was “really disappointed” in the union over the move; “Pokémon” voice actor Veronica Taylor questioned why the contract was approved without a vote from members.

But in a statement in the blog post, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher touted the agreement as “a great example of AI being done right.”

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The tension over the AI voice agreement for gaming comes two months after SAG-AFTRA reached a tentative agreement that ended a 118-day strike in a fight for short-term compensation and future royalty payments for film and television performances, in addition to AI stipulations.

The terms of the deal were not revealed at that time.

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