President Trump’s saber-rattling creates new risks for Apple

“As if Apple didn’t have enough to worry about with its upcoming iPhone launch next month. For the past year or more (probably more), the Mac maker has been trying its darnedest to balance all of the moving parts within its supply chain with its dream of shipping a 10th-generation iPhone that includes both an OLED display and 3D sensing capabilities. The latter entails important implications for the future of biometrics and augmented reality,” Evan Niu writes for The Motley Fool. “Over the course of the past week, a new risk factor has emerged: President Trump’s saber rattling.”

“North Korea has been a delicate geopolitical situation for decades, with numerous U.S. presidents struggling with how to approach foreign policy with the Hermit Kingdom,” Niu writes. “Yet this last week has seen tensions escalate to new highs, following North Korea’s successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in July and subsequent reports that the country has been able to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to affix atop said ICBMs.”

MacDailyNews Take: The real headline should be: “A nuclear North Korea creates real risks for everyone on the planet.”

“It goes without saying that the stock market, in general, does not like war. War creates incredible uncertainty that drives investors away, seeking safety and capital preservation in fearful times,” Niu writes. “If you look at Apple’s supplier list for 2016, you’ll find 29 addresses for supplier facilities located in South Korea, owned or operated by companies like 3M, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, and ON Semiconductor, among others. If you expand to China, which would inevitably be entangled as well, there are another 354 addresses listed. Any conflict on the Korean peninsula could threaten Apple’s entire supply chain, which could potentially cripple sales.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: A nuked-up Kim Jong-un nutjob with the means to deliver them to distant targets is obviously a very worrying situation for everyone on earth, one that easily eclipses Apple’s business worries.