On this episode of the Making Markets Podcast, host Daniel Newman shares his insights on why, over the next two weeks, we will have a barrage of earnings that start off with the like of IBM and Intel and continues on with Apple, Facebook, Google, AMD, Qualcomm, and more.
IBM spin off of Kyndryl.
Intel will be the litmus test for many of the IT OEMs, Device Makers, and Cloud Providers as we will get a peek at the Chip Production levels.
AMD's numbers will be important to watch in this space, too. Market Share could be swayed if supply problems impacted Intel or AMD adversely as OEMs sought to fill backlogs.
Apple heeded a few warnings that it is in fact having some supply issues, which could mean softer numbers after an array of great quarters.
Qualcomm will be one to watch in the mobile devices space. 5G handset numbers continue to grow, and Qualcomm is one of the leading suppliers in this space. I expect demand for 5G devices to remain high, and the company has done a good job of managing supply challenges but another data point will come from their quarterly results and handset shipment data.
Speaking of the Shortage Holidays Are Here
Here's what to expect from the holiday months:
The chip crunch will have an impact across a large swath of businesses this holiday season. Some of the efforts like opening the LA ports 24 hours will certainly help get more goods on store shelves.
Best Buy is taking advantage of this to create an exclusive shopper program at around $200 a year to get access to harder to get technology devices. It’s a clever way to charge more and create customer loyalty rather than what automakers are doing which is just charging over list.
But the issues for retailers aren’t just semiconductors. We’ve already talked about the timeline there. We have petrochemicals in short supply impacting plastics to paints. We have energy crunches in major manufacturing hubs like China that have caused factories to be temporarily shut down. The ports are overcrowded, but understaffed. We are diverting containers to more expensive air freight, which inflates prices and can’t move nearly the same volume of good. And then at the end of the line, there are a lack of over the road and last mile truck drivers to get the goods we do have on shelves. It’s a real dilemma.
Regulation in Focus, Again
The battle between consumer good, competition, and control of media and platforms rages on.
Apple Fights Back Against Epic as it asks for a stay to stop the ruling forcing it to allow developers to accept in-app payments not on the iOS Platform
Facebook Rebecca Haugen Whistleblower and the building pressure on Facebook is showing that there is a something that Republicans and Democrats can agree upon…Regulating Facebook.
