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“Expert” Narratives Are Collapsing

"Expert" Narratives Are Collapsing

Authored by Ian Miller via ‘Unmasked’ Substack,

The house of cards continues to fall apart…

General…

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"Expert" Narratives Are Collapsing

Authored by Ian Miller via 'Unmasked' Substack,

The house of cards continues to fall apart...

General mask mandates for most of the country have all but ended.

Outside of a few fanatical true believers like Los Angeles County and entertainment industry events like Comic-Con, almost no one is still mandating masks to go about daily life.

What they are doing however, is forcing masks back onto children in schools.

Perhaps the most indefensible “intervention” during the pandemic, school masking has confusingly become the most prominent reoccurring mandate across the country.

While it has seemed like this inexcusable policy would mostly be limited to far left areas, the most recent announcement comes from a much more surprising city; Louisville, Kentucky.

Starting Monday, July 25th, Louisville schools are now requiring masking at all facility locations and on buses:

Louisville joins San Diego schools, who also announced a mandate of their own recently.

Incredibly, that mandate was defended by a local official who claimed that students who can’t or don’t want to wear masks should just not come to school:

This is despite the overwhelming amount of data and evidence that’s accumulated over the past several years that school masking is completely ineffective. Not to mention the tremendous learning loss from virtual schooling and missed in person education that Whitehurst-Payne ignores.

Just recently, a study on school masking was released comparing two school districts in North Dakota during the fall and winter of 2021-2022.

The Fargo district had a mask mandate in effect starting when school returned in August, while their neighboring schools in the West Fargo district did not.

The results were nearly identical, with Fargo (in black) having a higher peak than their maskless neighbors:

The study authors even attempted to get compliance rates, which based on their conversations, showed that roughly 5% or less of students in the non-mandate schools were masking, compared to 95+% in the mandate district.

Many more studies and comparisons show the same results.

After the school mask mandates were lifted in Virginia, cases fell dramatically, and comparisons of states without and without school mask mandates showed case rates were higher overall in the forced masking locations:

There is simply no justification for continuing to mandate masks in schools.

While it’s unsurprising that cities in California or New York or Illinois will inevitably bring back mandates to assuage their own fears, it’s disturbing that a city in a red state like Kentucky would also return to forced masking.

Parents in these areas might have assumed that their children would be spared from this ineffective, destructive policy. But Louisville shows once again that the commitment to anti-science appeals to authority is possible anywhere.

Once again, Ron DeSantis has shown that he is head and shoulders above most politicians, correctly realizing that banning school masking is the only way to ensure that kids aren’t forced to placate delusional adults.

Mandates Aren’t Working

Even now, well after mask mandates have been completely disproven as a potential “intervention” against the spread of COVID, many parts of the world remain committed to this ineffective policy.

A new report from the Daily Mail highlights how comparisons of Australia to New Zealand and Singapore indicate, yet again, that mandates and mask wearing does not reduce COVID cases.

New Zealand continues to have a strict mask mandate that covers nearly all indoor settings, yet cases there continue to rise and are now among the highest in the world, after adjusting for population:

Similarly, Singapore has experienced a rapid increase in COVID cases and other metrics, despite maintaining a mask mandate with exceptionally high compliance and vaccination rates.

Even more embarrassingly, Singapore was specifically singled out as a supposed success story by Jerome Adams, the former U.S. Surgeon General.

Adams claimed on Twitter earlier in 2022 that the city “controlled surges” with “masking and mitigation:”

Meanwhile, Australia currently has nearly identical case rates, despite lifting many mask mandates and seeing significantly lower compliance percentages:

This is the exact opposite of what was predicted by many supposed “experts” and major media outlets.

No matter how often they’re proven wrong, they continually return to the inaccurate assumption that lifting mask mandates will lead to inevitable disaster.

Conversely, Ashish Jha, the Biden administration’s chief COVID coordinator, claimed in a recent interview in support of LA’s upcoming mask mandate, that wearing masks “really will make a difference:”

“CDC has very clear guidance on this as well through their COVID community levels. And the CDC recommendation is that when you’re in a high zone, that sort of orange zone, you know, people wearing masks indoors is really important, and it really will make a difference.”

Jha never has to face a follow up question asking him why mask wearing indoors is currently not working in other countries, if it’s “really important” and “will make a difference.”

There’s simply uncritical acceptance that what he says is fact, because he is the one saying it. Data, science and evidence are unnecessary when it comes to authorities repeating inaccurate talking points.

Even an Australian infectious disease professor succinctly explained how important imposing a new mask mandates is to slowing the spread: “It doesn’t matter.”

Hospitals Are Finally Admitting That Virtually No One is There For COVID

Los Angeles continues to do its best to take the crown of most anti-science city in America.

Recently the head of LA Public Health announced that the city would return to mask mandates if the region remains in the CDC’s arbitrary “high transmission” zone for two weeks.

Of course, in their announcement, no one pointed out that Los Angeles has made a substantial contribution to the evidence base proving that mask mandates do not work.

Los Angles officials continue to pretend that they can control the spread of the virus through indefinite restrictions.

But what’s worse is that despite the rising case and hospitalization rates used to justify endless mandates, a major LA medical system recently posted a video detailing how little COVID currently impacts their hospitals.

During their remarks, it emerged that “Only 10% of COVID positive admissions are admitted due to COVID.”

Meaning that if there are 100 hospitalized COVID “patients,” only 10 are there to be treated for it and 90 are there for other medical issues and just so happen to test positive.

Even more extraordinary is that they admitted that “virtually none of them go to the ICU,” and “they are not intubated…we have not seen one of those since February:”

As noted by Phil Kerpen, the video does not appear on any of the LA+USC Medical Center feeds, perhaps in an attempt to avoid creating doubt about the necessity of the upcoming mask mandate.

Beyond the implications, that COVID is no longer causing a significant threat to hospitals in the nation’s second largest city, this story provides yet another example of hypocrisy from Gavin Newsom.

Newsom recently released and promoted a political ad claiming that he’s creating a climate of “freedom” in California as opposed to Ron DeSantis in Florida.

Except when asked whether or not he supported Los Angeles potentially imposing a mask mandate two and a half years into the pandemic, Newsom deflected and refused to answer directly.

Somehow in Newsom’s mind, “freedom” doesn’t mean the ability to walk around without a mask, well after their efficacy has been disproven.

It’s not surprising that LA is likely returning to mask mandates despite the lack of severe impacts on hospitals from COVID. When the director of public health, who is not a doctor, makes nearly $500,000 per year to impose destructive, anti-science policies, it’s clear that no amount of data matters to city officials.

Young Kids Aren’t Getting Vaccinated

It’s now been a month and a half since the FDA inexcusably authorized the mRNA vaccines for children aged 6 months to 5 years old.

The decision, based on efficacy estimates that would have failed the standard set by the FDA to authorize the vaccines for adults, was greeted with acclaim by COVID fanatics and dismay by evidence based experts.

In fact, many top employees at the regulatory body and other public health agencies have quit in protest, believing that the authorization was politically motivated.

The rush to push the mRNA shots on young children was bewildering for several reasons.

COVID vaccines were initially authorized on an emergency use basis; except with the risks of severe illness so remarkably low amongst young kids, there is no real emergency for this age group.

Not to mention the lack of long term safety data, especially considering the now established risks of myocarditis. There’s also the fact that the vaccines were based on the original variant, which essentially no longer exists.

Discussions have already begun about updating the vaccines for the Omicron variant and mutations will continue indefinitely. Why rush to authorize the shots when they’re already out of date?

It seems that most parents across the country agree with these flaws.

According to recent data, only 2% of children under 5 across the country have been vaccinated for COVID.

That is an utter disaster for the Biden administration and the public health agencies they control.

They pushed the FDA to rush these vaccines out, and they’ve been overwhelmingly rejected.

While the report provides several excuses such as parents being used to getting their young kids vaccinated during visits to the pediatrician, this is the most widely publicized virus on earth. If parents really believed these shots were necessary or “safe and effective” for children, they would be making appointments at government run vaccination sites.

Instead, despite the Biden administration’s best efforts, most have correctly realized that there is no demonstrable benefit for this age group and not an insignificant amount of risk.

Each time the “experts” and their political bosses roll out another supposed “intervention” with the implication that this will finally be the one to prevent the spread of COVID, they get less uptake.

Booster shots have not been as widely adopted as the original series. The second boosters will be even less popular.

Now parents have shown little to no interest in early childhood vaccinations.

This is the only way to ensure COVID does not become a permanent feature of discussion; showing those in charge that no one is listening to them anymore.

For years, the media, “experts” and politicians have created narratives that mask mandates don't work in the US because of lack of compliance. They’ve defended the need for school masking and that parents were desperate to get their kids vaccinated. Or they’ve claimed that COVID was the cause for the overwhelming majority of hospitalizations.

All of these continue to be disproven.

Hospitals are finally acknowledging that COVID is not the cause for many of the COVID designated hospitalizations. School masking has been disproven by continued high quality research. International locations with high compliance are not controlling the virus with mandates.

Unfortunately we’ve seen a lot of this before.

It’s been clear for years that they were hopelessly incorrect, and yet they’ve continued to push for indefinite mandates and refused to admit mistakes.

Narrative collapse is but a small hindrance, easily dismissed as criticism from unqualified detractors.

But with the fall and winter rapidly approaching, it’s important to continue to dismantle their arguments and head off upcoming potential policy “interventions” before they start.

*  *  *

Unmasked is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/28/2022 - 06:30

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Congress’ failure so far to deliver on promise of tens of billions in new research spending threatens America’s long-term economic competitiveness

A deal that avoided a shutdown also slashed spending for the National Science Foundation, putting it billions below a congressional target intended to…

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Science is again on the chopping block on Capitol Hill. AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz

Federal spending on fundamental scientific research is pivotal to America’s long-term economic competitiveness and growth. But less than two years after agreeing the U.S. needed to invest tens of billions of dollars more in basic research than it had been, Congress is already seriously scaling back its plans.

A package of funding bills recently passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden on March 9, 2024, cuts the current fiscal year budget for the National Science Foundation, America’s premier basic science research agency, by over 8% relative to last year. That puts the NSF’s current allocation US$6.6 billion below targets Congress set in 2022.

And the president’s budget blueprint for the next fiscal year, released on March 11, doesn’t look much better. Even assuming his request for the NSF is fully funded, it would still, based on my calculations, leave the agency a total of $15 billion behind the plan Congress laid out to help the U.S. keep up with countries such as China that are rapidly increasing their science budgets.

I am a sociologist who studies how research universities contribute to the public good. I’m also the executive director of the Institute for Research on Innovation and Science, a national university consortium whose members share data that helps us understand, explain and work to amplify those benefits.

Our data shows how underfunding basic research, especially in high-priority areas, poses a real threat to the United States’ role as a leader in critical technology areas, forestalls innovation and makes it harder to recruit the skilled workers that high-tech companies need to succeed.

A promised investment

Less than two years ago, in August 2022, university researchers like me had reason to celebrate.

Congress had just passed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. The science part of the law promised one of the biggest federal investments in the National Science Foundation in its 74-year history.

The CHIPS act authorized US$81 billion for the agency, promised to double its budget by 2027 and directed it to “address societal, national, and geostrategic challenges for the benefit of all Americans” by investing in research.

But there was one very big snag. The money still has to be appropriated by Congress every year. Lawmakers haven’t been good at doing that recently. As lawmakers struggle to keep the lights on, fundamental research is quickly becoming a casualty of political dysfunction.

Research’s critical impact

That’s bad because fundamental research matters in more ways than you might expect.

For instance, the basic discoveries that made the COVID-19 vaccine possible stretch back to the early 1960s. Such research investments contribute to the health, wealth and well-being of society, support jobs and regional economies and are vital to the U.S. economy and national security.

Lagging research investment will hurt U.S. leadership in critical technologies such as artificial intelligence, advanced communications, clean energy and biotechnology. Less support means less new research work gets done, fewer new researchers are trained and important new discoveries are made elsewhere.

But disrupting federal research funding also directly affects people’s jobs, lives and the economy.

Businesses nationwide thrive by selling the goods and services – everything from pipettes and biological specimens to notebooks and plane tickets – that are necessary for research. Those vendors include high-tech startups, manufacturers, contractors and even Main Street businesses like your local hardware store. They employ your neighbors and friends and contribute to the economic health of your hometown and the nation.

Nearly a third of the $10 billion in federal research funds that 26 of the universities in our consortium used in 2022 directly supported U.S. employers, including:

  • A Detroit welding shop that sells gases many labs use in experiments funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense and Department of Energy.

  • A Dallas-based construction company that is building an advanced vaccine and drug development facility paid for by the Department of Health and Human Services.

  • More than a dozen Utah businesses, including surveyors, engineers and construction and trucking companies, working on a Department of Energy project to develop breakthroughs in geothermal energy.

When Congress shortchanges basic research, it also damages businesses like these and people you might not usually associate with academic science and engineering. Construction and manufacturing companies earn more than $2 billion each year from federally funded research done by our consortium’s members.

A lag or cut in federal research funding would harm U.S. competitiveness in critical advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics. Hispanolistic/E+ via Getty Images

Jobs and innovation

Disrupting or decreasing research funding also slows the flow of STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – talent from universities to American businesses. Highly trained people are essential to corporate innovation and to U.S. leadership in key fields, such as AI, where companies depend on hiring to secure research expertise.

In 2022, federal research grants paid wages for about 122,500 people at universities that shared data with my institute. More than half of them were students or trainees. Our data shows that they go on to many types of jobs but are particularly important for leading tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Intel.

That same data lets me estimate that over 300,000 people who worked at U.S. universities in 2022 were paid by federal research funds. Threats to federal research investments put academic jobs at risk. They also hurt private sector innovation because even the most successful companies need to hire people with expert research skills. Most people learn those skills by working on university research projects, and most of those projects are federally funded.

High stakes

If Congress doesn’t move to fund fundamental science research to meet CHIPS and Science Act targets – and make up for the $11.6 billion it’s already behind schedule – the long-term consequences for American competitiveness could be serious.

Over time, companies would see fewer skilled job candidates, and academic and corporate researchers would produce fewer discoveries. Fewer high-tech startups would mean slower economic growth. America would become less competitive in the age of AI. This would turn one of the fears that led lawmakers to pass the CHIPS and Science Act into a reality.

Ultimately, it’s up to lawmakers to decide whether to fulfill their promise to invest more in the research that supports jobs across the economy and in American innovation, competitiveness and economic growth. So far, that promise is looking pretty fragile.

This is an updated version of an article originally published on Jan. 16, 2024.

Jason Owen-Smith receives research support from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Wellcome Leap.

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What’s Driving Industrial Development in the Southwest U.S.

The post-COVID-19 pandemic pipeline, supply imbalances, investment and construction challenges: these are just a few of the topics address by a powerhouse…

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The post-COVID-19 pandemic pipeline, supply imbalances, investment and construction challenges: these are just a few of the topics address by a powerhouse panel of executives in industrial real estate this week at NAIOP’s I.CON West in Long Beach, California. Led by Dawn McCombs, principal and Denver lead industrial specialist for Avison Young, the panel tackled some of the biggest issues facing the sector in the Western U.S. 

Starting with the pandemic in 2020 and continuing through 2022, McCombs said, the industrial sector experienced a huge surge in demand, resulting in historic vacancies, rent growth and record deliveries. Operating fundamentals began to normalize in 2023 and construction starts declined, certainly impacting vacancy and absorption moving forward.  

“Development starts dropped by 65% year-over-year across the U.S. last year. In Q4, we were down 25% from pre-COVID norms,” began Megan Creecy-Herman, president, U.S. West Region, Prologis, noting that all of that is setting us up to see an improvement of fundamentals in the market. “U.S. vacancy ended 2023 at about 5%, which is very healthy.” 

Vacancies are expected to grow in Q1 and Q2, peaking mid-year at around 7%. Creecy-Herman expects to see an increase in absorption as customers begin to have confidence in the economy, and everyone gets some certainty on what the Fed does with interest rates. 

“It’s an interesting dynamic to see such a great increase in rents, which have almost doubled in some markets,” said Reon Roski, CEO, Majestic Realty Co. “It’s healthy to see a slowing down… before [rents] go back up.” 

Pre-pandemic, a lot of markets were used to 4-5% vacancy, said Brooke Birtcher Gustafson, fifth-generation president of Birtcher Development. “Everyone was a little tepid about where things are headed with a mediocre outlook for 2024, but much of this is normalizing in the Southwest markets.”  

McCombs asked the panel where their companies found themselves in the construction pipeline when the Fed raised rates in 2022.   

In Salt Lake City, said Angela Eldredge, chief operations officer at Price Real Estate, there is a typical 12-18-month lead time on construction materials. “As rates started to rise in 2022, lots of permits had already been pulled and construction starts were beginning, so those project deliveries were in fall 2023. [The slowdown] was good for our market because it kept rates high, vacancies lower and helped normalize the market to a healthy pace.” 

A supply imbalance can stress any market, and Gustafson joked that the current imbalance reminded her of a favorite quote from the movie Super Troopers: “Desperation is a stinky cologne.” “We’re all still a little crazed where this imbalance has put us, but for the patient investor and owner, there will be a rebalancing and opportunity for the good quality real estate to pass the sniff test,” she said.  

At Bircher, Gustafson said that mid-pandemic, there were predictions that one billion square feet of new product would be required to meet tenant demand, e-commerce growth and safety stock. That transition opened a great opportunity for investors to run at the goal. “In California, the entitlement process is lengthy, around 24-36 months to get from the start of an acquisition to the completion of a building,” she said. Fast forward to 2023-2024, a lot of what is being delivered in 2024 is the result of that chase.  

“Being an optimistic developer, there is good news. The supply imbalance helped normalize what was an unsustainable surge in rents and land values,” she said. “It allowed corporate heads of real estate to proactively evaluate growth opportunities, opened the door for contrarian investors to land bank as values drop, and provided tenants with options as there is more product. Investment goals and strategies have shifted, and that’s created opportunity for buyers.” 

“Developers only know how to run and develop as much as we can,” said Roski. “There are certain times in cycles that we are forced to slow down, which is a good thing. In the last few years, Majestic has delivered 12-14 million square feet, and this year we are developing 6-8 million square feet. It’s all part of the cycle.”  

Creecy-Herman noted that compared to the other asset classes and opportunities out there, including office and multifamily, industrial remains much more attractive for investment. “That was absolutely one of the things that underpinned the amount of investment we saw in a relatively short time period,” she said.  

Market rent growth across Los Angeles, Inland Empire and Orange County moved up more than 100% in a 24-month period. That created opportunities for landlords to flexible as they’re filling up their buildings. “Normalizing can be uncomfortable especially after that kind of historic high, but at the same time it’s setting us up for strong years ahead,” she said. 

Issues that owners and landlords are facing with not as much movement in the market is driving a change in strategy, noted Gustafson. “Comps are all over the place,” she said. “You have to dive deep into every single deal that is done to understand it and how investment strategies are changing.” 

Tenants experienced a variety of challenges in the pandemic years, from supply chain to labor shortages on the negative side, to increased demand for products on the positive, McCombs noted.  

“Prologis has about 6,700 customers around the world, from small to large, and the universal lesson [from the pandemic] is taking a more conservative posture on inventories,” Creecy-Herman said. “Customers are beefing up inventories, and that conservatism in the supply chain is a lesson learned that’s going to stick with us for a long time.” She noted that the company has plenty of clients who want to take more space but are waiting on more certainty from the broader economy.  

“E-commerce grew by 8% last year, and we think that’s going to accelerate to 10% this year. This is still less than 25% of all retail sales, so the acceleration we’re going to see in e-commerce… is going to drive the business forward for a long time,” she said. 

Roski noted that customers continually re-evaluate their warehouse locations, expanding during the pandemic and now consolidating but staying within one delivery day of vast consumer bases.  

“This is a generational change,” said Creecy-Herman. “Millions of young consumers have one-day delivery as a baseline for their shopping experience. Think of what this means for our business long term to help our customers meet these expectations.” 

McCombs asked the panelists what kind of leasing activity they are experiencing as a return to normalcy is expected in 2024. 

“During the pandemic, shifts in the ports and supply chain created a build up along the Mexican border,” said Roski, noting border towns’ importance to increased manufacturing in Mexico. A shift of populations out of California and into Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Florida have resulted in an expansion of warehouses in those markets. 

Eldridge said that Salt Lake City’s “sweet spot” is 100-200 million square feet, noting that the market is best described as a mid-box distribution hub that is close to California and Midwest markets. “Our location opens up the entire U.S. to our market, and it’s continuing to grow,” she said.   

The recent supply chain and West Coast port clogs prompted significant investment in nearshoring and port improvements. “Ports are always changing,” said Roski, listing a looming strike at East Coast ports, challenges with pirates in the Suez Canal, and water issues in the Panama Canal. “Companies used to fix on one port and that’s where they’d bring in their imports, but now see they need to be [bring product] in a couple of places.” 

“Laredo, [Texas,] is one of the largest ports in the U.S., and there’s no water. It’s trucks coming across the border. Companies have learned to be nimble and not focused on one area,” she said. 

“All of the markets in the southwest are becoming more interconnected and interdependent than they were previously,” Creecy-Herman said. “In Southern California, there are 10 markets within 500 miles with over 25 million consumers who spend, on average, 10% more than typical U.S. consumers.” Combined with the port complex, those fundamentals aren’t changing. Creecy-Herman noted that it’s less of a California exodus than it is a complementary strategy where customers are taking space in other markets as they grow. In the last 10 years, she noted there has been significant maturation of markets such as Las Vegas and Phoenix. As they’ve become more diversified, customers want to have a presence there. 

In the last decade, Gustafson said, the consumer base has shifted. Tenants continue to change strategies to adapt, such as hub-and-spoke approaches.  From an investment perspective, she said that strategies change weekly in response to market dynamics that are unprecedented.  

McCombs said that construction challenges and utility constraints have been compounded by increased demand for water and power. 

“Those are big issues from the beginning when we’re deciding on whether to buy the dirt, and another decision during construction,” Roski said. “In some markets, we order transformers more than a year before they are needed. Otherwise, the time comes [to use them] and we can’t get them. It’s a new dynamic of how leases are structured because it’s something that’s out of our control.” She noted that it’s becoming a bigger issue with electrification of cars, trucks and real estate, and the U.S. power grid is not prepared to handle it.  

Salt Lake City’s land constraints play a role in site selection, said Eldridge. “Land values of areas near water are skyrocketing.” 

The panelists agreed that a favorable outlook is ahead for 2024, and today’s rebalancing will drive a healthy industry in the future as demand and rates return to normalized levels, creating opportunities for investors, developers and tenants.  


This post is brought to you by JLL, the social media and conference blog sponsor of NAIOP’s I.CON West 2024. Learn more about JLL at www.us.jll.com or www.jll.ca.

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Analyst reviews Apple stock price target amid challenges

Here’s what could happen to Apple shares next.

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They said it was bound to happen.

It was Jan. 11, 2024 when software giant Microsoft  (MSFT)  briefly passed Apple  (AAPL)  as the most valuable company in the world.

Microsoft's stock closed 0.5% higher, giving it a market valuation of $2.859 trillion. 

It rose as much as 2% during the session and the company was briefly worth $2.903 trillion. Apple closed 0.3% lower, giving the company a market capitalization of $2.886 trillion. 

"It was inevitable that Microsoft would overtake Apple since Microsoft is growing faster and has more to benefit from the generative AI revolution," D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said at the time, according to Reuters.

The two tech titans have jostled for top spot over the years and Microsoft was ahead at last check, with a market cap of $3.085 trillion, compared with Apple's value of $2.684 trillion.

Analysts noted that Apple had been dealing with weakening demand, including for the iPhone, the company’s main source of revenue. 

Demand in China, a major market, has slumped as the country's economy makes a slow recovery from the pandemic and competition from Huawei.

Sales in China of Apple's iPhone fell by 24% in the first six weeks of 2024 compared with a year earlier, according to research firm Counterpoint, as the company contended with stiff competition from a resurgent Huawei "while getting squeezed in the middle on aggressive pricing from the likes of OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi," said senior Analyst Mengmeng Zhang.

“Although the iPhone 15 is a great device, it has no significant upgrades from the previous version, so consumers feel fine holding on to the older-generation iPhones for now," he said.

A man scrolling through Netflix on an Apple iPad Pro. Photo by Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images.

Future Publishing/Getty Images

Big plans for China

Counterpoint said that the first six weeks of 2023 saw abnormally high numbers with significant unit sales being deferred from December 2022 due to production issues.

Apple is planning to open its eighth store in Shanghai – and its 47th across China – on March 21.

Related: Tech News Now: OpenAI says Musk contract 'never existed', Xiaomi's EV, and more

The company also plans to expand its research centre in Shanghai to support all of its product lines and open a new lab in southern tech hub Shenzhen later this year, according to the South China Morning Post.

Meanwhile, over in Europe, Apple announced changes to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which went into effect last week, Reuters reported on March 12.

Beginning this spring, software developers operating in Europe will be able to distribute apps to EU customers directly from their own websites instead of through the App Store.

"To reflect the DMA’s changes, users in the EU can install apps from alternative app marketplaces in iOS 17.4 and later," Apple said on its website, referring to the software platform that runs iPhones and iPads. 

"Users will be able to download an alternative marketplace app from the marketplace developer’s website," the company said.

Apple has also said it will appeal a $2 billion EU antitrust fine for thwarting competition from Spotify  (SPOT)  and other music streaming rivals via restrictions on the App Store.

The company's shares have suffered amid all this upheaval, but some analysts still see good things in Apple's future.

Bank of America Securities confirmed its positive stance on Apple, maintaining a buy rating with a steady price target of $225, according to Investing.com

The firm's analysis highlighted Apple's pricing strategy evolution since the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007, with initial prices set at $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB model.

BofA said that Apple has consistently launched new iPhone models, including the Pro/Pro Max versions, to target the premium market. 

Analyst says Apple selloff 'overdone'

Concurrently, prices for previous models are typically reduced by about $100 with each new release. 

This strategy, coupled with installment plans from Apple and carriers, has contributed to the iPhone's installed base reaching a record 1.2 billion in 2023, the firm said.

More Tech Stocks:

Apple has effectively shifted its sales mix toward higher-value units despite experiencing slower unit sales, BofA said.

This trend is expected to persist and could help mitigate potential unit sales weaknesses, particularly in China. 

BofA also noted Apple's dominance in the high-end market, maintaining a market share of over 90% in the $1,000 and above price band for the past three years.

The firm also cited the anticipation of a multi-year iPhone cycle propelled by next-generation AI technology, robust services growth, and the potential for margin expansion.

On Monday, Evercore ISI analysts said they believed that the sell-off in the iPhone maker’s shares may be “overdone.”

The firm said that investors' growing preference for AI-focused stocks like Nvidia  (NVDA)  has led to a reallocation of funds away from Apple. 

In addition, Evercore said concerns over weakening demand in China, where Apple may be losing market share in the smartphone segment, have affected investor sentiment.

And then ongoing regulatory issues continue to have an impact on investor confidence in the world's second-biggest company.

“We think the sell-off is rather overdone, while we suspect there is strong valuation support at current levels to down 10%, there are three distinct drivers that could unlock upside on the stock from here – a) Cap allocation, b) AI inferencing, and c) Risk-off/defensive shift," the firm said in a research note.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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