Apple Inc

On February 18, 2016, IBM announced the acquisition of Truven Health Analytics for $2.6 billion. Truven provides cloud-based healthcare data and analytics.

Apple (AAPL) has repeatedly stated that it has a very satisfied and loyal customer base. In fiscal 1Q16, Apple experienced a high switch rate from Android (GOOG) to iPhone.

Last month, Apple (AAPL) declared its fiscal 1Q16 results, reporting revenues of $75.9 billion. Revenues rose 2% YoY (year-over-year) and 8% on a constant currency basis.

In an annual study conducted in 2013 by Brand Finance, Ferrari stood as the world’s most popular and instantly recognizable global brand.

Netflix’s competition in the video streaming market is increasing. Amazon has taken several initiatives in the last year to expand its Prime Instant Video service to counter Netflix.

Apart from acquisitions to further push the chances of Watson Health’s success in the healthcare space, IBM has partnered with Apple (AAPL), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and Medtronic (MDT).

In the third week of December, Amazon added 3 million new Amazon Prime members. Amazon Prime members receive video streaming services and free package delivery.

One of the most important growth drivers for Apple in China is the growing percentage of people in China’s upper middle class.

Amazon is the largest e-commerce player in the world. It could beat its own guidance for the December quarter. It will announce its earnings next month.

The majority of Apple’s revenues come from the iPhone, but the majority of the smartphone market is driven by Google’s Android. Google is valued at $527 billion.

Investment-grade bond yields rose 8 basis points month-over-month and ended at 3.5% on November 30 due to high expectations of an interest rate hike in the December policy meeting.

Comcast (CMCSA) has two primary business segments, Cable Communications and NBCUniversal.

Taiwan (EWT) is the largest semiconductor manufacturer, housing the world’s top two foundries, namely TSMC (TSM) and UMC (United Microelectronics).

Banking stocks are expected to benefit from higher interest rates, but not immediately. Also, rising interest rates would be countered by higher existing liquidity.

Although Apple does not provide guidance beyond the next quarter, the management is optimistic about the company’s growth prospects in the long term.

The smartphone growth cycle will reach its maturity stage at the end of this year. For the first time, it’s showing single-digit worldwide growth, according to IDC.

Intuit’s tax and accounting software and offerings dominate the very small business (or VSB) accounting market in the United States.

The medical device industry in the US consists of a few big players and a large number of small and medium enterprises.

Clorox’s (CLX) SG&A expenses increased 5.3% in fiscal 2015 compared to fiscal 2014. The increase was primarily due to increased advertising and marketing programs.

Amazon has outperformed the big technology giants in cloud computing, whereas Microsoft is tightening its grip on the cloud market by leveraging Azure.

Time Warner announced its 3Q15 results on November 4, 2015. Warner Bros. was a major contributor to the revenue of Time Warner in 3Q15, accounting for 47%.

The QQQ ETF has an expense ratio of 0.20%, and its average daily volume of shares traded is $4.7 billion. The price to-earnings ratio of QQQ is 18.53x.

Micron largely caters to PC and storage manufacturers. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Intel Corporation (INTC) and Kingston account for ~30% of Micron’s net sales.

Apple (AAPL) is starting an annual iPhone Upgrade Program for its new iPhone models at Apple’s US retail stores starting September 25, 2015.

Google’s (GOOG) market share in the mobile ad space is expected to fall to 31.70% in 2017. In contrast, Facebook’s market share is expected to grow.

Intel’s Skylake will offer new wireless charging and data transfer for a wire-free computing environment. Thus, Intel’s Skylake should help the PC market.

Taiwan’s semiconductor revenue rose 16.7% year-over-year to $72.5 billion in 2014, driven by an increasing demand for chips used in smartphones and Internet of Things products.

Tesla plans to expand its product portfolio to include the Model-X, which is expected to hit the roads sometime later this year.

If spreads widen further, high-grade bonds will become more attractive because yields and prices are inversely related. A rise in yields indicates falling prices.

Seagate manufactures products for a variety of business segments, including enterprise applications, and client compute and non-compute applications.

Netflix pricing is the lowest among all video streaming service players. Its basic plan of $7.99 is propelling the company’s streaming membership growth in the United States.

Sprint plans to implement a considerable densification program to harness its capacity spectrum holdings, making capital expenditures of ~$5 billion in fiscal 2015.

The Technology Hardware & Storage subsector underperformed the most since the beginning of January 2015. The stocks have primarily generated negative returns.

For those investors who believe that a rising tide lifts all boats, as John F. Kennedy once said, understanding business cycle investing is a must.

The overall large-cap technology sector is suffering from currency issues. Microsoft expects a 4% hit to its revenue growth, and Apple expects a 5% hit.

The debt-to-equity ratios of several top tech companies suggest that the broader markets are much more leveraged than tech stocks.

Best Buy is building strong relationships with key suppliers to mitigate the impact of heightened competition from suppliers’ retail stores.

High fixed costs result in high operating leverage. Acquiring new customers significantly increases a telecom company’s profitability.

The wireless network is also called the cellular network. It makes your mobile and smartphones work over radio signals.

The average selling price (or ASP) for BlackBerry (BBRY) smartphones continues to decline. Last quarter, the ASP declined from $201 in fiscal 2Q15 to $182.

High yield bonds (HYG), which are usually issued by mid- and small-cap companies, are considered riskier than investment grade corporate bonds.

Renaissance Technologies is an investment management firm. The fund’s portfolio decreased to $36.52 billion in the third quarter—compared to $42.89 billion in the second quarter.

Salesforce1 is a cloud-based platform that serves as a foundation for building connected apps that link to mobile devices, wearables, and big data.

Consumer demand for the latest features and applications is huge. Endless technological innovation addresses that demand to a point, but has led to consistently shorter product life cycles.

Know the market and know your own appetite for risk before investing. You can’t eliminate market risk, also called systematic risk, through diversification. You can, however, hedge against market risk.

The NASDAQ’s upstart image and all-electronic trading platform have attracted more technology-based companies. Many of these companies didn’t qualify to list on the NYSE when they originally went public.

Software and hardware are integrally linked, which makes it confusing to distinguish one from the other.

Apple came out with its fiscal Q2 2014 earnings on Wednesday. The company mentioned in the call that it managed to sell 4.1 million Macs, which was a growth of 5% over the same quarter last year.

The popular Internet radio service Pandora, which revolutionized the way people listen to music, posted its highest quarterly earnings in the calendar fourth quarter 2013, since its IPO in 2011.

The employment situation is the primary monthly indicator of aggregate economic activity because it encompasses all major sectors of the economy.