With crude oil up nearly $2 today, a legend in the business sent King World News a fantastic piece that discusses a major market that will surprise people and what Apple is making that will revolutionize the world.
From Art Cashin's notes: "Some Thoughts On An Apple Car – Over the weekend, my friend, and fellow trading veteran, Jim Brown, over at Option Investor reported on some hiring patterns at Apple. Here's a bit of what Jim found:
Apple may or may not be planning an electric car and they have declined to comment on "rumors and speculation." However, Apple has hired so many engineers from electric car battery maker A123 Systems that A123 has sued Apple over the poaching. A123 said Apple was on the verge of gutting A123 completely. The lithium batteries from A123 are found in several hybrid cars including the BMW and Chevy Spark. Apple also tried to hire battery experts from LG Chem Ltd, Samsung Electronics, Panasonic, Toshiba and Johnson Controls according to the lawsuit.
Apple also hired Johann Jungwirth who for six years led research and development for Mercedes-Benz in North America. He joined Apple in September. He specializes in building internet connected cars and autonomous driving.
Elon Musk has also complained that Apple has been hiring away his engineers at a record pace. Musk said Apple was offering $250,000 signing bonuses and 60% increase in salaries to Tesla engineers. Musk also admitted he spoke with Apple's acquisitions team last year but would not disclose the topic.
Based on publicly available employment records Apple has hired dozens of executives and engineers from other auto companies. A longtime engineer at Autoliv, a maker of automobile safety systems, joined Apple to work in their special projects group in January. The special projects car team now has more than 200 employees.
Two vans registered to Apple and covered with sensors similar to the early Google prototypes have been spotted in San Francisco and Brooklyn. This suggests they are experimenting with self-driving cars as well.
Analysts believe Apple could not actually produce a car until about 2020 because of all the engineering that needs to be done and manufacturing of the individual parts as well as building the manufacturing facilities.
Apple may not want to admit it but there are far too many signs that they are headed towards producing a prototype car. They may not want to produce it but they could easily license the production to somebody already in the business.
Consulting The Swami – As you may recall, my good friend, Barry Habib, the mortgage maven, had suggested a week or so ago that the yield on the 10 year Treasury would again dip below 2.02%. When it did yesterday, I asked him to refresh his opinion. Here's what he wrote this morning:
I am encouraged that yields broke below a very important Fibonacci level at 2.02%. Additionally, the 50-day moving average, at 1.99% has been broken. If the 10-yr holds these two levels and remains under them by the close, it is very likely that the yield will drop to 1.78% within the next 10 days.
One other technical signal that would appear if yields close lower today is a stochastic crossover from high levels. This momentum indicator has been highly reliable, and would add to the argument for a drop in yields.
Let's look at the reason for the rise in yields during February. Since the end of January, the 10-year has gotten clocked, with a greater than 50bp move up in yield. The big question is…why? Have fundamentals changed? Is inflation a fear? Economic data turning sharply higher? Is the Fed going to hike suddenly? The answer is no, no, no, and no! So what has changed? It's all about the tear that stocks have been on, which pulled money out of bonds. Once stocks finally take a breather, the 10-year will benefit. I don't think we have put in the low yields for the year yet.
Consensus – Yellen Redux. Written testimony must be, word for word, the same. Variation can only come in Q&A. There is some risk that markets sense something different. Keep your eyes on bond yields and the dollar. Stick with the drill – stay wary, alert and very, very nimble." ***ALSO JUST RELEASED: One Of The Greatest Danger Signals Is Now Flashing RED! CLICK HERE.
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