Mar 29, 2017

Wake-Up Call: Your Pre-Market Summary- Wednesday 3-29-17.

 

Today’s Economic Shakers

Brexit process officially begins as Britain formally withdraws from the EU…

The “Brexit” is now official.

On Wednesday morning, Britain’s ambassador to the European Union (EU) made a formal presentation of his country’s intention to withdraw from the European bloc, delivering the approproate letter by hand to EU officials in Brussels.

The letter is the first step in the formal process that is required for Britain as it begins the “divorce” from the region’s economic and political union.

Britain, which has been a member of the EU since 1973, triggered the process of separating from the EU by invoking Article 50, the first of a series of required steps that will take 2 years to complete.

Back in June of last year, UK citizens shocked both sides of the Atlantic by voting Yes on a referendum that sought the country’s separation from the EU.

The vote reflected that of a divided nation, as 51.9% of Britain’s voters cast a Yes vote for a divorce from the economic union.

Britain’s exit from the EU will mark the first time any country has left the bloc since its inception back in 1951.

The delivery of the letter was just the first step of the process, and now the UK has just 2 years to work out deals with the EU on everything from trade and tariff issues to immigration and inter-continental travel.

As the Brexit process has been expected to begin today, there was little impact on the European bourses, with the regional benchmark, the Stoxx 600 index, up 0.10% in morning trading.

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Apple gets boost from analyst projection, hits all-time high...

Apple continues to have a blockbuster month of March as the company’s stock closed at a record high of $143.80 on Tuesday.

That not only beat the previous record close established earlier in the month, it also took out the stock’s all-time intraday high that was established last week.

The tech company saw a bump of more than 2% following a report from investment bank UBS that said it could foresee a scenario that could drive the price of Apple stock as high as $200 at some point within the next couple of years.

That note from the bank’s analyst was more than enough to cause investors to purchase sufficient quantities of stock to send Apple to a record high for the fifth occasion this month.

It would come as no surprise to anyone with even a cursory familiarity of Apple that the bullish target offered up by the UBS analyst was centered on projections of increased iPhone growth, the engine that has driven the company over the last decade since that product’s launch.

That $200 target is also predicated on other factors, according to the analyst’s note, including gains in new products and an additional round of stock buybacks by Apple.

The UBS report also outlined a more negative scenario that envisioned the stock dropping down to $125, should the company see a decrease in iPhone sales as well as a lag in the creation of new products.

Apple stock has gained close to 24% since the start of 2017.