First Of Two Big Stories Reported Yesterday -- January 14, 2023

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There were two huge stories reported yesterday.

Here is the first of those two.

Apple.

To put this in perspective, for Big Pharma a "one-billion-dollar-in-sales (annual)" is a blockbuster drug for Big Pharma. They don't come often but when a pharmaceutical company books $1 billion in sales in one year for a single drug, that's a huge, huge story.

Yesterday someone noted that Goldman Sachs lost $1.2 billion due to a single Apple "product."

Link here. 

This is huge on several levels. 

For me personally, this is most interesting. Have you ever been charged (usually, about $25) for a late payment on a credit card? I have. Rarely and it's usually due to simply forgetting to pay on time, especially with a credit card I seldom use. 

At best, the credit card company reminds you after the deadline has passed, and you've already been assessed that late fee.

Apple Pay doesn't let that happen. If Apple has not received your payment within twenty-four hours (or thereabouts) of its due date, Apple sends you a reminder so you have a chance to "beat" that late fee. I wouldn't be surprised if someday, they take it a step further, and for "good" accounts, not only remind you of the due date pending, but adding an extra day or two if you've been a good credit card customer. 

I'm not sure, but I think Apple is moving toward a BNPL format -- buy now pay later -- which is now favored by many millennials. 

There are additional advantages with using Apple Card. 

But think about this.

Goldman Sachs. A bank. Market cap: $130 billion. Credit cards / its credit card division is a huge profit center for the bank. It's what banks do. Make money on credit cards.

But Apple. Credit cards -- for Apple the credit card division is a sideline -- probably run by some intern. LOL. And Apple has time to make its credit card division better. Its market cap? $2.15 trillion and will hit $3 trillion before GS hits $500 billion. 

Yes, this is a huge story. 

By the way, look at the photo above. With GS, most folks carry plastic. With the Apple Card, just carry your iPhone.

And, with Apple, you actually have three "options": Apple Pay, Apple Card, and Apple Cash. 

Okay, now look at this. 

This was posted last week before the GS story came out:

• AAPL's biggest "outside" shareholder? Warren Buffett (BRK)?
• who does Tim Cook call when he needs investment advice? And who picks up the phone personally?
• if so, remember, if there's one thing Buffett knows and knows well, it's banks.

Really exciting. Even I have "Apple Wallet" -- linked with a non-Apple credit card.

From CNBC, June 7, 2022:

The second of two big stories later. That one will be an "oil" story. Crude oil.