This week:
- Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget provides a quick breakdown of Alibaba's Jack Ma unique approach to the company's annual meeting, which saw the CEO do his best Michael Jackson impression.
- Blodget discusses Apple's new iPhone launch, which arrived to great acclaim, with many folks very impressed. He looks at what past iPhone events have meant for Apple's stock, concluding that investors have generally been buyers leading up to and following them. Such a reaction this time around would be welcome news for Apple investors who have already enjoyed the stock's big gains this year. Blodget then looks at the potential for Apple's market cap to hit $1 trillion.
- Blodget argues that this latest Apple iPhone launch will be the last of its type. He says the market is maturing, with upgrades getting smaller and more incremental each time. He goes on to praise the company's ability to lock customers into its ecosystem, and breaks down a Morgan Stanley analyst's prediction that Apple's push into augmented reality will be its "next big thing."
- In the Fidelity insight of the week, Business Insider executive editor Sara Silverstein looks at recent comments from Matt Drukker, the portfolio manager of the Fidelity Select Telecom Portfolio. He said that a record number of upgrades in 2016 could translate to an unexpectedly strong year for smartphone sales, especially considering that one might be required to run new operating systems.
- Mark Lehmann, the president of JMP Securities, spoke to Silverstein about the IPO market. He notes that 2017 has been a much better year for offerings than 2016, and that 2018 will see even more activity. Lehmann argues that the issues facing Snap and Blue Apron, which have both struggled since going public, are company-specific, and that there's still lots of cash chasing new ideas. He weighs in on Uber's IPO, which he thinks will likely come after 2018, as well as Roku. Lehmann then talks about Spotify's attempts to circumvent the IPO process, which he calls untraditional, and sees helping the company roll over its small shareholder base. He then highlights cloud IPOs, which he says have done very well and are continuing to gain steam, and says that successful secondary offerings show just how strong the marketplace is right now.
- Blodget and Silverstein discuss whether they're going to buy the new $1,000 iPhone, and heap praise upon Jack Ma's Michael Jackson impression.
