Apple and it's followers...

Macro Perspectives: Thursday 20 August 2020

Stocks reversed into the end of the day, after printing a new record high.

This comes on the day that Apple became the first two trillion-dollar company - just two years ago (almost to the day), Apple became the first one trillion-dollar company.

Want to replicate Warren Buffett's portfolio? Put about half of your money in Apple and you're about there. Buffett now has $133 billion worth of Apple - 45% of Berkshire Hathaway.

If we look back to the first crossing of that trillion-dollar market cap threshold, by Apple, it wasn't long before both Amazon (September 2018) and Microsoft (April 2019) joined the party.

Will they follow Apple's lead again? Very likely. Both are valued at $1.6 trillion at the moment.

This is either what it looks like when money around the world finds a store-of-value in monopolies (it's like buying gold), or we're looking at the early signs of a global reset of all asset prices, thanks to the trillions of dollars-worth of new money that policymakers have dumped onto the world.

It's probably both.

This is not necessarily reflecting a higher value, just a higher price - that's a formula for a lower quality of life.

Conversely, what's the right price for oil, if these stocks are foretelling a global recovery? Back in August of 2018, when Apple became the first trillion-dollar company, oil was trading over $70. Today, it's trading $42 - $44.