“Apple CEO Tim Cook was notably reassuring when asked about the prospects of U.S.-China trade talks in a Tuesday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer,” Elizabeth Gurdus reports for CNBC. “In the interview, Cook cast the trade-related economic weakness in China as ‘temporary,’ saying it was in both countries’ ‘best interests’ to reach an agreement.”
“‘It is a very complex trade agreement and it needs to be updated, but as I’ve said before, I’m very optimistic that this will happen,’ Cook told Cramer. ‘That clearly will be good not only for us, frankly, but I think more about the world in general. The world needs a strong U.S. and China economy for the world economy to be strong,'” Gurdus reports. “In the interview with Cramer, Cook said he had ‘heard some very encouraging words’ from people with knowledge of the talks ‘very recently,’ and had shared his thoughts and concerns with them.”
“Cook and President Donald Trump have had a mixed relationship, but they’ve been in touch regularly over the course of Trump’s presidency,” Gurdus reports. “According to Cramer, host of ‘Mad Money,’ Cook said ”my information is basically real time,’ and real-time, he feels a lot better… about a possible China deal.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Bottom?
[A U.S.-China trade deal] would be a big breakthrough and make people feel like they should be buying some Apple down here, [because] the stock is too cheap… I took [Cook’s remarks] as real upside and it made me feel like the stock is in the process of bottoming here. — Jim Cramer
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Talks with China are going very well!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2019
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I’m cognizant that in both the U.S. and China, there have been cases where everyone hasn’t benefited, where the benefit hasn’t been balanced. My belief is that one plus one equals three. The pie gets larger, working together. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, March 24, 2018
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At least half of the popular fallacies about economics come from assuming that economic activity is a zero-sum game, in which what is gained by someone is lost by someone else. But transactions would not continue unless both sides gained, whether in international trade, employment, or renting an apartment. — Thomas Sowell, June 14, 2006
SEE ALSO:
CEO Cook: Apple ‘underappreciated’ by Wall Street – January 8, 2019
Apple’s ‘disappointing’ guidance of $84 billion in quarterly sales would rank No. 33 in last year’s Fortune 500 – January 7, 2019
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross: Apple’s earnings miss had nothing to do with U.S.-China trade talks – January 7, 2019
Advisor to President Trump: Apple’s sales should pick up when U.S.-China strike trade deal – January 3, 2019
And I’m optimistic about Cook stepping down ASAP.
I’m actually glad China stole Apple’s IP, serves greedy Cook right. He saved trillions of dollars using slave labor in the short run, while gambling away Apple’s credibility and security long term.
I just want to add one point:
Hey F2T2, the woman on the right looks like your wife (after coming back from the beauty salon)!!!!
Can we be optimistic for you stepping down Tim and letting someone with better FOCUS on APPLE than social issues be in charge of this great company?
I think Thomas Sowell is brilliant!
Cook is definitely the leader Apple needs at this time. As a shareholder I have absolute confidence in him.
If Donald hadn’t created such a mess, there wouldn’t be so much to discuss to get out of it!
The mess was created by past presidents, both Democrat and Republican.
President Trump is cleaning up their mess.
“I’m cognizant that in both the U.S. and China, there have been cases where everyone hasn’t benefited, where the benefit hasn’t been balanced.” — Apple CEO Tim Cook, March 24, 2018
First 2014 Then Whatever: please cite specifically what mess Trump has cleaned up, with an independent (non-Sanders/Conway/Faux News/Drudge/ MDTrump Bullshit News) reference.
Of all the constitutional duties that a US President has, Trump has done fewer of them than perhaps any prior president in memory, and that includes William Henry Harrison. Harrison, in his brief presidency, rebuffed the partisanship and corrupt “spoils” system his fellow conservative Whigs demanded, as well as the tariff hikes that congressman Clay wanted. That was a huge benefit to the growing nation back then. Trump, in sharp contrast, has done nothing but try to personally profit from his corruptly-acquired office and is in the process of destroying economic growth via isolationism and humanitarian disasters of his own making. Trump is conservative in name only — more of a bully racist, actually. Hence no republican is willing to be seen with working with him.
It is also noteworthy in the historical context that Harrison’s death in office revealed a flaw in the Constitution. Back in 1840, Article II was not clear enough to indicate if the VP was to be merely Acting President until an election could be held, or if the VP was to inherit the presidency for the remaining term of his predecessor. The Taney decision established succession precedent until the 25th amendment clarified the Constitution.
To this day you have other flaws in your constitution, which you willfully ignore. Among them is that the penalty for foreign collusion has not been adequately defined. Trump, when found guilty of trading information with Russian officials, funding foreign information campaigns such as Cambridge Analytica, and perhaps directly conducting campaign business with foreign agents including those with ties to Putin, will be punished. All indications show Trump is relying on Corrupt Senator McConnell to keep him from impeachment hearings or worse. In exchange for McConnell’s protection, it’s plainly obvious that Trump has agreed to McConnell benefitting from the Trump Smokescreen and Daily Tweet Storm as he stonewalls all legistlative reform. The only bill of any consequence that was passed in the last 2 years was personally enriching to both Tump and McConnell. Despite the fact that Trump had 2 years of congressional partisan control with which to do any of his outlandish campaign promises, McConnell and lackey House Idiot Ryan chose not to offer Trump anything he wanted. The last 2 years has seen zero “mess cleaning” as you claim. Quite the opposite, in fact. The US economy is teetering on recession, the US has no international friends, and no domestic reform, efficiency gain, or other local improvements can be found. The 2017 tax “reform” enriched corporate CEOs in the short term in exchange for record new long term debts that taxpayers will have to bear in the future. Job growth and wages haven’t hit the rates Trump bragged would miraculously occur. The short term goosing of the economy has stalled out and the predicted hangover is just starting.
Your move, chief.
I just want to respond to First, the dipshit juvenile who posts juvenile republican propaganda at every opportunity:
Heard from Apple Employee… China Government is confiscating all iPhones from their employees. Apple products, once a status symbol in China, are now being shunned. All in response to Trumps trade war.
Courtesy of Mr.Cook’s hubris and now, it’s karma’s turn…
Cook cites absolutely nothing but blind hope as a reason for his feigned optimism. He didn’t convince Cramer, who clearly is not optimistic about the trade talks. Cook obviously has never played the prisoner dilemma game with a player that is happy to slit his own throat in order to spite you. That’s what Trump does, except when Trump causes both sides to lose, he claims unilateral victory.
Petulant whiny tantrum thrower Trump can’t even get along with his own countrymen or even his own party to find a way to agree on a national budget WHICH WAS PASSED BY THE REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED SENATE AND THE DUMBOCRAT PARTY HAS AGREED TO. The result is that the government cannot offer security services in this time of Trump-claimed “crisis”. Such administrative incompetence doesn’t bode well for trade talks.
Fossilized Senate finance chairman Grassley (R), in a rare display of spine, has stated that congress will not authorize Trump any further executive authority over tariffs or trade. Clearly Grassley’s constituents, including many Iowa farmers, have been amongst the hardest hit by Trumps self defeating isolationist politices. You should hope that
3 days of trade talks haven’t revealed any real progress, or any signs that China would back down from its “Made in China 2025” programme. The highly indebted USA simply has no real leverage to force China to do anything. American CEOs and consumers, now completely dependent on cheap Chinese labor, have done little to nothing to pivot the working classes of the USA to new job training. They have zero recourse when China decides it will not play ball with an arrogant US administration. Despite the dreams of the Trump administration that China needs US fossil fuels and timber, the Chinese government is more than happy to deal with any other nation to get its natural resources and sells its wares, and that includes African war zones, Iran, or North Korea. Trump has been powerless to stop those trade violations. So instead of real action against bad trade partners or multilateral world trade reform, the Trump administration has been issuing shrill tweets.
Note that the short term tech stock bump from CES optimism and Fed guidance will dissipate rapidly as the feckless Trump administration continues to step in more piles of its own excrement.