Apple Gets The Bill

 

CLOSING BELL The market was mixed Thursday, unless you were buying memory stocks.  $MU and $SNDK both ripped after Micron’s monster quarter showed buyers are still paying up for scarce chips. But the customers eating those costs, especially $AAPL and $MSFT, got hit as price hikes moved from earnings-call theory to actual product pages.  Inflation came in at a three year high, for some more negative news, showing PCE inflation at 4.1%. Some more negative news came from the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranians fired on a vessel for an unclear reason. It was a drop in the bucket compared to the 70+ super tankers flooding out of hiding today and into the open ocean, now that peace is (mostly (hopefully)) secured.  Today's Briefing:  After the Bell: Apple’s price hikes turned Micron’s monster quarter into a consumer-tech margin warning  Stocks: SELLAS gave biotech traders a binary trial setup, while Bayer got a Supreme Court lifeline  Macro News: Hot PCE kept the Fed’s rate-hike option alive  Pops and Drops & More

AFTER THE BELL Memory Bill Arrives  Apple sank more than 5% Thursday after the firm said it was raising MacBook and iPad prices to offset surging memory and storage costs. Micron's earnings report melted faces Wednesday, and Apple said great we have to price this in to phone factories.  Why the MU Report Melted Brains: Memory is supposed to be cyclical, but Micron is printing software-like margins because AI data centers are swallowing RAM faster than the industry can supply them.  The RIP: The buy was massive. $SNDK ( ▲ 21.97% ) ripped +22%, $AMAT jumped +13%, $LRCX and $KLAC rallied, and even $WDC and $STX caught bids. Meanwhile, $AAPL ( ▼ 6.12% ) and $MSFT got hit because Micron’s pricing power is their input-cost problem. Same story, opposite side of the trade. Apple raised select MacBook and iPad prices by $100 to $300, while iPhone pricing stayed unchanged.  The next test is whether Apple can keep protecting the iPhone without eating the full memory bill. Counterpoint estimates memory and storage prices have quadrupled in three quarters, with higher component costs potentially adding roughly $200 per iPhone. Apple Community is bearish, message volume is normal across ~981.6k watchers.  @Cousin_Vinny said: "$AAPL dropped (over reaction) creating an opportunity IMHO. They raised prices? ... so what." (post)  @SmartTrade99 said: "$AAPL free fall next round, party is over." (post)  Sound off in $AAPL: pricing power or demand killer? →

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STOCKS SELLAS Gets Loud  SELLAS Life Sciences ripped Thursday as retail traders piled into one of biotech’s favorite genres: tiny company, huge drug trial, mysterious filing, and a message board trying to solve the case before management says anything. SELLAS is nearing the final readout for REGAL, its Phase 3 acute myeloid leukemia trial of galinpepimut-S, and a new SEC filing gave retail something to yell about. The Stocktwits community is in love with this one, a small bunch of very enthusiastic believers.  The RIP:  $SLS ( ▲ 14.83% ) rose 15.6% to $10.61, with post-market trading around $10.69. Stocktwits showed 66% bullish sentiment, 34% bearish, normal message volume, and ~56.9k watchers. REGAL had reached 78 of 80 required events as of May 11. SELLAS held $107.1M in cash on March 31, plus $7.5M from warrant exercises.  REGAL is testing GPS in AML patients who have achieved a second complete remission after salvage therapy. The trial is built around overall survival, so the “80 events” are 80 deaths before the trial can end. Once that happens, SELLAS can lock the database, review and analyze the final data. And most users say that happened in May.  If GPS meaningfully extends survival, SELLAS may suddenly have a late-stage oncology asset that could support a regulatory filing and attract partners. If it fails, so does the stock.  The new filing is what brought the noise today. SELLAS updated executive change-of-control and severance agreements for CEO Dr. Angelos Stergiou, CFO John Burns, and Chief Development Officer Dr. Dragan Cicic. In normal company land, that is boring HR stuff, but in SLS world, it is ‘big if true’ news.Community is bullish, message volume is normal across ~56.9k watchers.  @Duncan74 said: "$SLS SELLAS just officially updated the Change of Control & Severance Agreements... You do not rewrite executive Change of Control contracts unless ownership is preparing to shift." (post) @Hannibal_Smith said: "$SLS Just FYI. Immunomedics revised their 'change of control terms' on September 12th 2020. The company was acquired by Gilead on the 24th of September 2020." (post) Roundup Relief Rally  Bayer jumped Thursday after the Supreme Court handed the pharma and agriculture giant a major win in its long-running Roundup cancer litigation. In a 7-2 ruling, the court said Bayer’s Monsanto unit cannot be sued under state law for failing to add cancer warnings that the EPA did not require.  The RIP: $BAYRY rose 17.2% after the ruling. Bayer bought Monsanto for $63B in 2018, has faced thousands of Roundup claims, and is pursuing a proposed $7.5B settlement to contain the litigation.  Make your case in $BAYRY: legal reset or relief rally? →

MACRO NEWS Inflation Reheats Fed  The Fed’s favorite inflation gauge hit a 3-year high Thursday, keeping another rate hike alive even after oil prices backed off from war-shock levels. The awkward part: consumers are still spending, businesses are still ordering equipment, and core inflation is not giving policymakers much room to declare victory. I mean worst inflation since Covid is really all you need to say.  "A pickup in core inflation was the most important part of today's economic releases, adding to the likelihood that the Fed raises rates in the next 12 months," Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist for Fifth Third Commercial Bank, said Thursday. The RIP: PCE rose 4.1% year over year in May, up from 3.8% in April. Core PCE rose 3.4%, its highest since October 2023. Monthly PCE rose 0.4%, core rose 0.3%, consumer spending rose 0.7%, and the Fed funds range is 3.50%-3.75%.  "PCE price inflation remains too high and will keep the Fed on hold and mulling a potential rate hike at upcoming meetings," Scott Anderson, chief U.S. economist at BMO Capital Markets, said Thursday.

TRENDING ON STOCKS Pops & Drops $GRPN ( ▲ 24.89% )  Groupon : ripped +24% after buybacks tightened its heavily shorted float  $TECH Bio-Techne: surged +20% after Merck KGaA agreed $11.3B takeover  $AMAT ( ▲ 13.42% )  Applied Materials:surged +13% after Micron validated AI equipment spending boom  $GLW ( ▲ 10.78% )  Corning: climbed +11% after AI fiber demand lifted glass suppliers  $CAT ( ▲ 6.29% )  Caterpillar: gained +6%after industrials led the Dow rally  $MSFT ( ▼ 3.46% )  Microsoft : fell -3%after Xbox price hikes exposed memory costs  $PLTR ( ▼ 5.49% )  Palantir : dropped -5% after AI software repricing deepened  $ON ( ▲ 2.59% )  ON Semi : tumbled -6% after Synaptics merger sparked strategic doubts  $FIG ( ▼ 9.66% )  Figma : dropped -9%after Config updates failed to stop selling