As the U.K. vote to leave the European Union roiled global markets, Apple shares declined 3.4% in active premarket trade Friday.
“Only about 2.3% of Apple’s revenue over the past 12 months came from the U.K., but overall exposure to Europe is 15.4%, according data provided by FactSet’s proprietary algorithm,” Tomi Kilgore reports for MarketWatch. “The U.K.’s benchmark FTSE 100 Index was tumbling 4.6%, and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index was plunging 7%.”
“Prime Minister David Cameron is to step down by October after the UK voted to leave the European Union,” BBC News reports. “Speaking outside 10 Downing Street, he said ‘fresh leadership’ was needed. The PM had urged the country to vote Remain but was defeated by 52% to 48%.”
“UKIP leader Nigel Farage hailed it as the UK’s ‘independence day,’ while Boris Johnson said the result would not mean ‘pulling up the drawbridge,'” The Beeb reports. “Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was ‘absolutely determined’ to keep Scotland in the EU so a second Scottish independence referendum was now ‘highly likely.'”
“Boris Johnson, the ex-London mayor and public face of Vote Leave who is now a frontrunner to be next prime minister, said there was ‘no need for haste’ about severing the UK’s ties,” The Beeb reports. “He said voters had “searched in their hearts” and the UK now had a ‘glorious opportunity’ to pass its own laws, set its own taxes and control its own borders.”
Read more in the full article here.
SEE ALSO:
U.S. stocks fall as Brexit concerns persist – June 17, 2016
Precursor to President Trump in the USA.
Congratulations on declaring your independence, Brits! The road back to sovereignty is bound to be rocky in spots, but the destination will prove to have been worth the journey.
You think that this was the first of the three catastrophies?
Unfortunately, Britain might be a harbinger of things to come in many ways. And they’re all negative.
I’d been listening to Brexit news for the past few months. When I first became aware of it, the reasons for the exit from the E.U. were not compelling to me. I heard things like “the E.U. makes us include necessary labeling on food items.” Or, “we don’t like having to follow regulations from officials that aren’t British or local.” Both of these annoyances seemed small compared to larger trade, so I was unconvinced that these were even close to the real reason for the Brexit movement.
Then I heard a few man-on-the-street reports from Brits likely to vote for Brexit. I hear phrases like “Stains isn’t even Stains anymore. It’s filled with immigrants. They don’t even have the courtesy to learn English. We are losing our culture.” I thought to myself, Ah-ha! Racism is fueling Brexit. That makes much more sense.
Then two days ago, on the eve of the vote, I heard a final news report that was just dripping with delicious irony. The report was about how Brexit did mean more immigration into Britain, but for every immigrant that has moved into England, a Brit had moved out into a European nation. They described how the coast of Spain was becoming a “Florida” for Britain. And that British expats were moving there to live out their retirement. One of the British retirees in this Spanish community said “I moved here 6 years ago, and it’s wonderful. I get 300 days of sun, and I can still draw my British pension and medical. Even better, this Spanish town I am in has British pubs and grocers, and I don’t even have to learn Spanish!”
He then went on to say; “I’m going to vote by mail to stop Brexit because I want my pension to still come in, but I admit that if I was still living in Britain that I would vote for it.” Oh! the irony.
The problem with racists and bigots is that they usually create unfavorable markets. And if today’s downturn is any indication of what could happen in the U.S. if a bigot like Trump was elected, it’s simply not worth it to our economy. Bigotry and trade don’t mix.
The “EU” and concepts like “open borders” benefit the 1%.
Truly “favorable markets” would benefit the majority of citizens, not the handful of establishment elites like Hillary Clinton who get fabulously rich off the backs of the people – sorry, from “inclusive” globalist policies that hurt the majority of citizens.
If you haven’t noticed – and you wouldn’t have if all you listen to are the Obama/Clinton liars – there is a global Islamic Terrorist threat. Failing to uphold the law by not policing borders, in fact by irresponsibly flinging them wide open – is not the course of action a smart person would choose.
Enough with the kumbaya bullshit. It has failed. Europe is comprised of separate countries. Pretending those countries are like U.S. states is a stupid concept and a proven failure. Let the dominos tumble! Let the sham crumble!
Massive ignorance in First ad nauseum’s posts, as usual. I’ll wager he’s got no actual experience of Europe or Britain, let alone an understanding of the facts and issues. He’s just one of the Trump ultra-nationalist bully-boys, and he’s as ignorant as Trump and Palin (who also shot her mouth off today).
The younger, more educated Brits voted strongly to stay. They’re the ones who saw the benefits of a united Europe, with many going to universities in Spain or France or Europe, and who saw the huge advantages of integration. The less educated, more working class and older northerners voted to leave, fed up with the immigration policies directed from Brussels. And for sure those needed fixing. But this was a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. The pound fell 10% overnight, the FTSE was down 7% and the Dow 4%. This could start another western recession. Ultra-nationalist in Holland and France are already planning their own exit votes to continue to break up Europe.
The EU was started in large part to end the centuries of wars between European nations. By making your enemy your trading partner, you both needed each other in order to be stable and prosperous. Nothing was perfect, but it for sure created stability. This is undoing all that, fomenting xenophobia and ultra-nationalism.
Russia is poised to take massive advantage and help in de-stablizing Europe – something it hasn’t achieved since invading Czechoslovakia back in 1968, despite its recent attempts in the Ukraine.
I guess that’s what ignorant fools like First want. Cheule and alanaudio are right. This was a foolish and very dangerous move, not just for Britain, and it will lead to very uncertain times.
I’ll wager you are unaware that Britain was a sovereign nation state which accomplished much prior to its becoming a part of the Bureaucratic Socialist European Workers State that Benefits the Wealthy. Britain had its own currency, its own language, its own culture. It actually was very successful on its own.
Since I was born in England and lived there for 35 years before moving to the US where I’ve lived for 25 years I’ll wager I know a hell of sight more about British history and British politics than you do.
And if you think that the Britain of the 1960s and 1970s was “very successful” I’ve got several battleships to sell you. It was controlled by trade unions, several of which were lead by communists. The labour governments of the time were puppets. The time just before joining the common market was probably the worst in modern British economic history.
“..I was born in England and lived there for 35 years before moving to the US where I’ve lived for 25 years…”
Why did you leave your country and come to America?
I had the opportunity to try something different.
yeah, right….you’re sure no Nigel Farage.
You’re right I’m no Nigel Farage. He’s an embarrassment to British politics like Trump is an embarrassment to American politics. But what’s that got to do with anything?
You’re an embarrassment to all free men.
What Joe said. I’ll add that the UK joined the economic union in part to help pull the country out of its morass.
@cheule
Some of the details you mention aren’t 100% correct, but the essence of what you say is pretty accurate.
Regrettably, one major factor in the argument for Brexit turned out to be immigration. It’s something that has been handled in varying ways over the years and can be very beneficial to our country, but the leave campaign has been able to whip up feelings that are very negative.
We also had one of our young female politicians shot and killed last week. That may not seem out of the ordinary to people where guns are commonplace, but in England a guy managed to buy instructions from the US about building his own gun ( built using hand tools, not 3D printed ) and used that gun and a knife to kill a 42 year old woman whose views he disagreed with. For that sort of thing to happen in the UK is without precedent and is a sign of the forces of intolerance that have been stirred up during this campaign. I’ve witnessed many elections in my time, but have never known one with anything approaching the vitriol and hostility that we have seen during this referendum.
My biggest worry is that this result has empowered a certain type of politician who chooses to disregard experts and instead do whatever they want to do. I’m the first to concede that experts sometimes get things wrong, but I also know that politicians are much more likely to get things wrong than the experts. Without the checks and balances imposed by being part of the EU, British politicians ( of all parties ) will be free to take whatever extreme positions that they choose to adopt. I think it’s a very dangerous position and I fear that political violence might well be seen again in the future.
A huge can of worms has been opened and nobody seems to know what will come of it.
If President Trump is our fate then I guess we deserve him. If he does become President, he can use the full force of the Federal government to pursue Ted Cruz’s dad for his part in assassinating JFK.
Nope… What you truly deserve is Trump and Palin. Or then again I might be too cruel so lets say that only for 4 years. They are so quick that your economy is ruined in one year.
I don’t deserve Trump. He is a lifelong Democrat and I detest Democrats. He actually said several times Hillary Clinton would be a great President, and she is a known sociopath and rape enabler and rape victim attacker. She is one cold ugly pant suited Marxist. Nobody except Marxist doofuses deserves her.
It’s a good thing Apple’s European headquarters are in Ireland. Otherwise, they’d have to think about relocating.
Those who voted for Brexit are the same type of people who voted for Trump. It’s cold comfort that the US is not alone in its parochial desire to withdraw from the world. Great Britain, a union that has stood strong for over 3 centuries, is near its end. Scotland will soon leave and Northern Ireland won’t be far behind. All that will remain will be “Little England” (with apologies to Wales).
The EU is an imperfect beast as is the US. But the UK had a much better chance of implementing change from within. The English have now consigned themselves to irrelevancy. A bitter end to a once great empire.
You may be the dumbest human ever. This has incredibly bad consequences for the British.
Just one example for your thick skull. – It will not cost Britain the same amount of money it pays now to access european markets with none of the membership benefits. This will cause England to pay approximately 2.5% penalty for every transaction it conducts with the EU.
You are in now way qualified to present your views on anything as you are dumb as a stone.
UK decision: Sovereignty and self-determination OR continue as a vassal sub-state ruled by an unelected banking cartel for abroad.
Congratulations British patriots, The Bulldog of Chartwell is standing and toasting to his people today. To quote one of my favorite Brits:
“Power to the people, right on.”
Now if they’d only have the balls to throw the royals out on their useless arses.
You numb-nuts. The Royal family is Britain’s single biggest earner – as part of the tourist industry. People from all over the world flock to see the Royals. And pay handsomely to do so.
Massive ignorance on this board.
you’re an idiot.
The key phrase, “The UK now had a ‘glorious opportunity’ to pass its own laws, set its own taxes and control its own borders.”
As it should have been. One world government attempt, FAIL.
Act of Union 1707. FAIL.
The people who voted against Scottish independence made it clear that continued union was contingent on the UK remaining in the single market. Every single parliamentary constituency in Scotland voted to Stay yesterday. The Scottish National Party is already talking about a new referendum. Mr. Trump’s golf courses will no longer be in the UK after his neighbors have “exercised the sacred right of all free peoples” to reject his advice about Europe.
The people in Great Britain who had the most dealings with the EU—Londoners and Scots—voted to Stay. The Leave majority was in rural areas and the English Rust Belt. People there are angry that blue-collar jobs in mining, agriculture, and manufacturing have gone away and they blame Europe. Like Mr. Trump, the Leave campaign promised that those jobs would somehow come back if Evil Foreign Influences were put in their place by a resurgence of isolationism. The next Golden Age for yeoman farmers, hand machinists, and coal miners is just around the corner. When you are desperate, you will believe anything.
English businesses have been hit with a massive decline in exchange rates this morning. They will need to raise their prices to cover the increased cost of imported materials. They can’t borrow to cover the losses, since British stock prices are in free fall, too. Perhaps they should label the 20% rise in the cost of living the “Brexit Tax.”
“The people who voted against Scottish independence made it clear that continued union was contingent on the UK remaining in the single market. ”
How did they do that? Did they write it on the ballot paper? I’m sure parties put words in their mouths after the event, but there was no mechanism in place to make this caveat.
I guess we’ll find out after the next referendum.
The pro-Stay campaigners before the last one (and the press analysis after) made a very big deal out of the fact that a post-secession Scotland would have to negotiate its own entry to the EU if it wanted to continue enjoying the benefits of membership. Those are vital to Scotland because so much of its economy is based on North Sea resources and overseas trade. Since the Scots could avoid the uncertainties of renegotiation by accepting increased autonomy within an existing EU member, there was little to gain through independence.
If the UK is no longer an EU member, that winning argument no longer holds water. After Brexit, UK trade with Europe will be governed by new treaties that will inevitably be negotiated to protect the interests of the English majority, not the Scottish minority. In addition, the EU courts will no longer be available as a counterbalance to any invasion of Scottish rights by the obviously-rising English nationalism. Now the uncertainties involved in remaining within the UK are even greater than the uncertainties of leaving.
I was against Scottish Independence last year. I genuinely thought it wasn’t in the best interests of Scotland. I was wrong. Your politics are different to those in England. Staying within the UK is only going to cause you pain. I hope you get independence quickly, and wish you all the best when you do.
@TxUser: The sad (and ironinc) part is that the more industrial north will suffer most, as exchange rates and import tariffs and restrictions push up prices, forcing businesses that rely on imports to close, and creating an even bigger north-south divide. The 1%ers, that fools like First, etc. rail against so often, will do ok, thank you, as they always do. The working man in the street will suffer most from this.
The people of the United Kingdom have exercised the sacred right of all free peoples. They have declared their independence from the European Union, and have voted to reassert control over their own politics, borders and economy. A Trump Administration pledges to strengthen our ties with a free and independent Britain, deepening our bonds in commerce, culture and mutual defense. The whole world is more peaceful and stable when our two countries – and our two peoples – are united together, as they will be under a Trump Administration.
Come November, the American people will have the chance to re-declare their independence. Americans will have a chance to vote for trade, immigration and foreign policies that put our citizens first. They will have the chance to reject today’s rule by the global elite, and to embrace real change that delivers a government of, by and for the people. I hope America is watching, it will soon be time to believe in America again. — Donald J. Trump
https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/posts/10157213077740725
Be very careful that you too don’t get taken for mugs.
During the referendum campaign, there was a lot of rhetoric and promises. Within hours of the result, one of the leaders of the Brexit campaign said it had been a “mistake” for the Vote Leave campaign to promise – as emblazoned on its battlebus – that there would be an extra £350m a week for the NHS. That promise didn’t even last for 12 hours after the result was declared.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnston, who led the campaign for Britain to leave the EU has this afternoon said that there is no hurry to do so, despite the fact that the leaders of the EU have said that Britain must act as soon as possible to get on with the process of leaving. If he was so desperate to quit, why does he not want to do so as soon as possible?
Charismatic politicians routinely make all sorts of promises and then fail to deliver in the future, but I’ve never before witnessed promises evaporating within hours of winning.
You folks in the US ought to take this as a very serious warning. Be sure that any politician making promises has the integrity to actually deliver on those promises once the vote is over. The result is final and you have to deal with whatever you and your fellow citizens ended up voting for
The poster you referred to claimed 350 million went to the EU and that it could, instead, be spent on the NHS. I don’t recall ever seeing a promise it would be. The whole point was that if we left the EU we’d have that money to spend how we choose, and that COULD be the NHS. Maybe the authors even thought it should be.
But in any event, the leave campaign had no authority to make any promise about where it WOULD be spent, since they are not in government. It would be for whatever government is in power at that time to choose where to spend it. Anyone taking it as a promise was clearly not being very thoughtful.
That figure of £350 million was incorrect in the first place. It failed to include the rebate that was paid back to the UK. In reality if The UK paid no money at all into the EU and received no rebate back, then the net saving would only be around £188 million.
Both sides in the Brexit debate told huge lies and resorted to reckless scaremongering. I think that most of the politicians who took an active role in the debate were pretty appalling and the country is now very much worse off as a result, with little prospect of it getting better for a decade or so.
If the wiser politicians come to power, some of the harm may be avoided, but the way things are looking, the worst politicians could be the ones making the decisions.
I’m not sure I understand your point. EVERY election winner could claim, “My campaign had no authority to make any promises, since we were not then in government. Clearly, it would be up to whatever government is in power to make those decisions. Anyone taking my representations as a promise was clearly not being very thoughtful.”
Most election winners wait more than twelve hours after the polls close before they announce that their “representations” were “mistakes” and not “promises.” If they did not intend for their “representations” to imply their actual conduct in office and thereby influence voters, why did they paint the statements on the side of their campaign bus?
This is supposed to convince us that the Leave folks “tell it as they see it,” while the Stay advocates are just lying politicians? Similarly, when a US politician tells us that his country has the highest taxes in the world, which he intends to lower, we do not expect him to admit just after the election that the US actually ranks 31st out of the 34 leading industrial nations in taxes as a percentage of GDP. Although he cannot reasonably lower taxes much further without ballooning the deficit, anybody taking his statement while out of government as a promise of what he would do in government was clearly not being very thoughtful.
“EVERY election winner could claim…”
This was a referendum, the group making the claim are not standing for election. They will derive no authority from any result and cannot implement policy.
Farage was not an election winner since this was not an election. Nor was it his campaign group that made the claim.
I am not speaking to the validity of the claim either way, just the false accusation that any actual promise were made, or that it was retracted by the people that made it.
Well, in the US it’s a puppet show between polarized factions, a dualistic proposition of ‘either this or that’. Everybody gets fired up as the elections approach, convinced that the key to success is to get the one side elected vs the other. Meanwhile nothing really ever changes regardless of who gets elected. It shows the real intent is not really to implement change to benefit the people, but to solidify the status quo that benefit the few. Everything else is a distraction:”It’s their fault!… No, their fault!”… Once the elections subside, most re-enter the pursuit of ‘improving their lives or circumstances’ and it’s back to business as usual. Things will change only once more become aware and decide to not support this manipulation any more… Sooner rather than later, hopefully.
Nigel Farage and Donald Trump are snake oil salesmen.
Hillary Clinton is a snake.
@Sovereignty! – Surely that can’t be the same Trump who four days ago said he had not paid any attention to the Brexit issue and had no comment to make about it?? Now, all of a sudden, he’s an expert on the issues and what the outcome means? Wow.
Actually, he’s not an expert on anything except taking advantage of people. He actually said that he’s glad the pound lost 10 value overnight because more people would go to his golf course now and he’d make more money. He’s an opportunist always clamoring for attention. He manages to speak on both sides of any and every topic, and the press never holds him to account.
well, you’re a liar….Trump commented on it weeks ago with the caveat, “this is only my personal opinion and in no way an attempt to influence the British voter.”
UNLIKE PIECE OF SHÏT OBAMA.
It’s the same Donald Trump who is such an “expert” that he immediately pissed off the Scots by congratulating them on voting to leave the EU – when Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in!!! The man is a total fool.
another liar, he congratulated the UK, Scotland, as you may not know is a part of the UK…it was in all the papers.
Time to get real, botty. Here’s Trump’s tweet: “Just arrived in Scotland. Place is going wild over the vote. They took their country back, just like we will take America back. No games!” Even a member of the Scottish Parliament tweeted back at him “You are in Scotland. We voted #Remain.”
It didn’t help that he also commented that he would make more money from his new golf course because the pound lost 10% overnight. Again, his words: ““If the pound goes down, more people are coming to Turnberry, frankly.” Never mind the chaos in the world markets or the pain that will cause millions of Brits.
Is that egg on your face?
you remain a liar.
Does this mean Hillary doesn’t get to be Queen of the World? Lord let us pray!
Trump will be Dicrator for Life? Seig Heil! Open the gas chambers!
A Dumbocrat that cannot spell. How quaint.
Someone who can’t tell the difference between a typo and a misspelling. How quaint.
You are kidding right? That is a good one.
Big question is how all of this will affect the EU investigation of Apple in Ireland. Any ideas on what will happen? Good for Apple? Bad for Apple?
I would say that it’s completely neutral.
Ireland is part of the EU and will remain so, therefore nothing should change.
Close to 100 hundred years off.
Let’s make America Great Britain again!
Just join Canada. You could be the Southern Province and you all could get a health care and a Queen. No need for orange toupees.
Congratulations to the EU for getting rid of non-team player. Certainly don’t want to have a disgruntled member spoiling it for the rest.
Congratulations to Britain for your decision. Now you can go back to the pound and the imperial system.
Oh yeah those feets and toes and fingers and itches and scratches and mails and poundings and driving in the wrond side of the road. Oh humanity it is good to get that out of the sight and out of the mind.
Hey smartie. They never abandoned the pound or the imperial system. Read a fscking book before you comment like an expert.
The UK never joined the Eurozone, but they did, by and large, abandon the imperial system in favor of metric quite a long time ago. My wife is British, and all her recipes measure ingredients by metric weight, not imperial volume (125 grams of flour, not a cup). There are exceptions, such as expressing the weight of human beings in “stone,” rather than kilograms.
Perhaps you should read another book, too. The one you are recommending deals mostly with sexual positions, not weights and measures.
Oh dear, the British never abandoned the pound or the imperial system and you never figured out sarcasm. I guess I should have put my /shjtt (sarcasm, humor, joke, tall tale) tag at the end of my post. Fortunately goodidea clued into it.
The UK still uses the pound and has never adopted the Euro. We were already moving away from the imperial measurement system long before Britain joined the EU. I am 66 and have only used imperial units when working with Americans. The main exceptions that come to mind are a pint of beer, while driving distances are usually expressed in miles, but most of us have no problem dealing with km when driving elsewhere and some British road signs use metres or km anyway.
Hey alanaudio, I guess that was my point, in a sarcastic way sure to confuse many who come here. Britain doesn’t really want to be a team player with the EU and they have decided to leave. We’ll just see how hard the door whacks them on their way out. Good riddance is all I can say.
As this week’s vote has shown “Britain” doesn’t think the same across the country. I hope you welcome an independent Scotland automatically as a successor state to the UK’s membership when the UK splits in two. They really want the EU, as much as London does.
As for Northern Ireland, I’m hearing lifelong Unionists now wondering whether they’d be better off uniting with the Republic. We are living is extremely strange times.
The UK has rejected “the false song of globalism.” I didn’t think they had it in ’em. Now, it’s our turn:
ª Primary-out Ryan on August 9th.
• Trump/Sessions in November.
Bush, Obama, Clinton ALL on the wrong side of history.
Very little economic insight here in this thread…much hot air there is.
Even Boris Johnson himself now realizes what a stupid move this was. (I live in Europe and in th UK for 7 years so unless you are from here, learn instead of opining.)
The day of the vote, Johnson says to Vameron to Remain as PM. What? Why? Losers resign in parliamentary systems.
Then he says after the vote “No rush!” What? No rush? If no rush, why the vote?
Boris is an American citizen, too. He is so fricking ignorant he didn’t know he had to pay ties to the US when he made a capital gain when he sold a house he didn’t live in.
This is typical of conservatives in general. They let their wishful thinking overpower any rationality: The Iraq war, the Afghanistan war, the “let the market police itself” Great Recession of 2008, now Trump’s hate Muslims and Mexicans (Hitler’s two groups were Jews and Roms).
No this move by the British Conservative Party just sent Britain back to the 70’s and instead of it being the 5th largest economy of the world, it will sink back down into about the 25th.
Why would anyone do business with a population so daft they would ruin the government’s finances AGAIN with such a vote? The pound will stay down. The EU has its rules. Britain wants access to the market without the cost of EU citizens having acces to it.
No this is not going to be a good thing. And now the political turmoil in France, Holland, Hungary and Sweden that will result is going to make things worse.
No, 17,400,000 ignorant Conservative Brits showed that we mistrusted them with a big role in the world.
Never again.
Anyone but Boris as PM. He was an utterly useless mayor of London. He would be utterly useless as PM.
By the way, we’re no longer the 5th largest economy. As of yesterday’s meltdown of the FTSE and GBP France is now 5th.
Boris is an opportunistic fool (just like Trump). He is actually pro-European, but led the “leave” campaign hoping that Cameron would be forced to resign if he lost. Which he did. Boris’ move was nothing more than a cynical ploy to become PM. And it may have worked, at huge cost to ordinary Brits.