AAPL - Apple Inc.
| Previous Close | 263.19 |
| Open | 263.69 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 1000 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 1200 |
| Day's Range | 261.18 - 264.01 |
| 52 Week Range | 142.00 - 268.00 |
| Volume | 28,768,117 |
| Avg. Volume | 25,813,040 |
| Market Cap | 1.184T |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 1.25 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 22.04 |
| EPS (TTM) | 11.89 |
| Earnings Date | Jan. 27, 2020 - Jan. 31, 2020 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 3.08 (1.16%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2019-11-07 |
| 1y Target Est | 257.21 |
- Bloomberg
Apple's IPhone 11 Runs Into Buggy Launch
Nov.21 -- Apple is overhauling how it tests software after a swarm of bugs marred the latest iPhone and iPad operating system launches, according to people familiar with the shift. Tom Forte, DA Davidson senior research analyst, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports on "Bloomberg Technology."
- Yahoo Finance
Why Sonos paid almost $40 million for an AI startup
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence speaks with Yahoo Finance fresh off the company's first-ever acquisition as a public company.
- Bloomberg
Apple AirPods Shipments Expected to Double to 60 Million in 2019
(Bloomberg) -- Shipments of Apple Inc.’s popular AirPods wireless earphones are expected to double to 60 million units in 2019, according to people familiar with the Cupertino-based company’s production plans. This has been driven in part by “much higher” than expected demand for the pricier AirPods Pro model unveiled in October.The $249 AirPods Pro -- which offer noise cancellation and water resistance -- have surpassed expectations and demand for them is pushing Apple’s assembly partners against capacity and technical constraints, a person familiar with the matter said. Multiple suppliers are competing for the business of manufacturing the Pro earphones, though some are still building up the technical proficiency. There’s currently a wait time of two to three weeks for the AirPods Pro on Apple’s U.S. website.The most advanced form of wireless headphones is called “true wireless,” defined by the absence of a wire not just between the headphones and the music source but also between the two earbuds -- and the AirPods are the category-leading example. Taiwan-based Inventec Corp. and China’s Luxshare Precision Industry Co. and Goertek Inc. manufacture the AirPods for Apple.Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller declined to comment on the product’s shipments.The pickup in AirPods sales this year has been helped by the launch of two new iterations: the Pro model in October and a $199 upgraded version of the original in March. The first AirPods were released in 2016. The runway is also mostly clear for Apple to have a successful holiday season, with Microsoft Corp. delaying its rival true wireless buds until spring and Google also not launching its new model until 2020.At the end of August, Apple was the clear leader in the global true wireless earphones market, according to Counterpoint Research. AirPods shipments have dwarfed every alternative and the Beats Powerbeats Pro, another Apple product, also feature in the top 10 sellers. While Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy Buds have emerged as a recognizable competitor, Apple moreover ranked as the most preferred brand for future purchases of true wireless headphones in the U.S., the researchers said.“Apple also edged rivals because true wireless as a category is the preferred choice over wireless earphones, due to factors like better sound quality, portability, and ease of use,” Counterpoint analyst Pavel Naiya wrote on Sept. 26.Wearables like the AirPods and Apple Watch have become a crucial growth driver for the Cupertino company, which is adapting to plateauing iPhone demand in a mature smartphone market. In the past quarter, Apple’s iPhone sales shrunk to $33.4 billion from the prior year’s $36.8 billion, whereas the Wearables, Home, and Accessories segment -- composed of the Apple Watch, AirPods, Beats, HomePod and Apple TV groups -- generated $6.5 billion in revenue, growing by 54%.Total shipments of the AirPods Pro for the year will be determined by how well and how quickly the assemblers overcome the production challenges they currently face. If the overall AirPods range hits 60 million units in 2019 as is now expected, Apple should retain its 50% share of the true wireless market, which Counterpoint expects to surpass 120 million shipments for the year.\--With assistance from Mark Gurman.To contact the reporter on this story: Debby Wu in Taipei at dwu278@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Vlad SavovFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Regulators Warn Banks About Tech Risks During Goldman-Apple Flap
(Bloomberg) -- Banks that use complex models for lending better be able to explain why some borrowers are granted credit and others aren’t, regulators said Thursday.Otherwise, one regulator at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warned, they’ll face an uphill climb when battling accusations of discriminatory lending. The subject has overshadowed the introduction of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s credit card for Apple Inc.“If you’re facing those allegations, the first step is to understand why the algorithm in the decision-making process led to two different outcomes for apparently similarly situated applicants,” Albert Chang, counsel in the bureau’s innovation office, said Thursday at an industry conference in Manhattan. “And if you don’t have that ability to explain the decisions, it’s awfully hard to rebut that allegation of discrimination.”Prominent Silicon Valley executives publicly complained this month about receiving significantly higher credit limits on their Goldman-backed Apple credit cards than their wives, despite having similar incomes and credit scores. That revived long-held concerns about algorithms illegally treating borrowers differently because of race, gender or other characteristics.The controversy, which continues to play out on Twitter as more borrowers allege bias by Goldman, has dogged the storied Wall Street institution and marred its foray into banking for the masses. The New York State Department of Financial Services launched an investigation, and for the first time in years the bank has become the subject of nightly news broadcasts.“There’s no gender bias in our process for extending credit,” Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer David Solomon told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Thursday from the New Economy Forum in Beijing.Goldman spokesman Andrew Williams said the firm welcomes a discussion with policy makers and regulators. “For credit decisions we make, we can identify which factors from an individual’s credit bureau-issued credit report or stated income contribute to the outcome,” he said.Firms have promoted the use of algorithms in lending decisions as an antidote to biased human underwriters. What’s more, lenders say, using complex models to process loan applications is quicker, cheaper and more efficient when pricing credit, and enables more people to borrow more money at better terms.But regulators who enforce fair-lending laws continue to push banks to address the risk that complex models may cement the kind of bias they are meant to stamp out.Carol Evans, an associate director in the Federal Reserve’s consumer and community affairs division, urged lenders to be more forthcoming with their overseers.Bankers shouldn’t have the attitude of, “‘I know you don’t understand our models, but trust us,’” Evans said. “I don’t think that’s worked well for financial services in the past.”(Updates with Goldman comment in seventh paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Shahien Nasiripour in New York at snasiripour1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Dan Reichl, Steve DicksonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
3 Dividend-Paying Tech Stocks to Buy Right Now on Growth Opportunities
Despite the U.S.-China trade setback, stocks could still climb in 2019 and beyond, and the tech industry remains a key growth driver. Therefore, we searched for tech companies with our Zacks Stock Screener that also pay a dividend...
- The Guardian
The Banker: Apple abruptly cancels premiere of its first major film
The Banker: Apple abruptly cancels premiere of its first major film. Decision to cancel premiere reportedly stemmed from sexual abuse allegations against a producer of the film
- Zacks
Trade War Updates, Trump & Apple, Target Earnings & Buy This Chip Stock
The latest U.S.-China trade war news. President Trump's Apple factory trip. Retail earnings, including Target. And why Applied Materials (AMAT) is a Zacks Rank 1 (Strong Buy) stock right now, all on today's episode of Free Lunch...
- Bloomberg
Microsoft Delays Its AirPods Rival Until After the Key Holiday Season
(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. delayed the launch of its Surface Earbuds, missing the 2019 holiday shopping season. The software giant is the latest company to stumble in a race to catch up with Apple Inc.’s popular AirPods.The Surface Earbuds will come out in spring 2020, not this year as previously planned. The announcement was made by Panos Panay, the company’s chief product officer, on Twitter.The wireless earbuds were announced earlier this year, and like AirPods, are cord free. The Microsoft version has a circular shape, integrates with a voice assistant and can be used to control Microsoft software like PowerPoint.At $249, the Surface Earbuds are priced the same as Apple’s new AirPods Pro, but the delay means Microsoft will be missing out on a key category this holiday season.Google has also been working to upgrade its wireless earbuds. That product will also be missing this holiday season. The company is aiming for a release in the spring at a price of $179.To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Gurman in San Francisco at mgurman1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr, Andrew PollackFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Are Apple ETFs in for Trump Trade Ahead?
Apple shares may move higher in the days ahead as Trump is considering the exemption of U.S. tariffs on China-made Apple products.
- Bloomberg
Adobe Adds Features to iPad Photoshop App After Early Criticism
(Bloomberg) -- Adobe Inc. said new features are coming to its Photoshop for iPad application, responding to criticism that the first version lacked basic functions users expected would be retained from the desktop model of the best-selling image-editing software.The company said Thursday that before the end of the year it would add a Select Subject mode, which uses artificial intelligence to automatically identify and select a subject in an image, and an upgraded version of the Cloud documents function, which synchronizes Photoshop files between the desktop and iPad apps. In the first half of 2020, Photoshop for iPad will get support for Curves, which adjusts the color of an image, and improvements to layers, brush sensitivity, the ability to rotate the canvas and integration with the Lightroom app, the company said in a blog post.Adobe didn’t address other missing elements that users have complained about, including RAW image editing and smart objects. Bloomberg News reported earlier this year that beta testers of Photoshop for iPad said the app was far more watered down than expected.Earlier this month, Scott Belsky, chief product officer of Adobe’s Creative Cloud division, tweeted about the “painful” early reviews for a product his team has worked on for years. Right now in Apple’s App Store, Photoshop for iPad has a user review rating of two of five stars.Adobe is trying to move its most successful software franchises to mobile devices as a way to boost revenue and maintain its stature as the world’s largest maker of creative software. The San Jose, California-based company also recently said it will bring Illustrator to the iPad in 2020.While the apps cater to creative professionals seeking the ability to work on the go, Adobe also is trying to expand the appeal of its photo-editing and illustration software to hobbyists.To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Gurman in San Francisco at mgurman1@bloomberg.net;Nico Grant in San Francisco at ngrant20@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack, Mark MilianFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Apple, Comcast, NVIDIA, GlaxoSmithKline and Global Payments
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Apple, Comcast, NVIDIA, GlaxoSmithKline and Global Payments
- Investing.com
Stocks - Tiffany & Co, Fiat, Apple Rise Premarket; Macy’s Falls
Investing.com - Stocks in focus in premarket trading on Thursday:
- Zacks
Yes, You Can Time the Market. Find out How - November 21, 2019
Have you ever dreamed of being that one in a million investor who has the talent to perfectly time the markets?
- Zacks
PayPal Acquires Honey Science, Boosts E-commerce Presence
PayPal Holdings (PYPL) acquires a private e-commerce company, Honey Science, for approximately $4 billion.
- Reuters
UPDATE 2-Trump wants Apple to be involved in 5G infrastructure building in U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had asked Apple Inc Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to look into helping develop telecommunications infrastructure for 5G wireless networks in the United States. "They have it all - Money, Technology, Vision & Cook!" Trump tweeted, without elaborating on how he expects the iPhone maker to contribute. Apple is not known to have made any investments in 5G telecoms infrastructure to date and is yet to release a 5G device.
- Reuters
Trump wants Apple to be involved in 5G infrastructure building in U.S
"They have it all - Money, Technology, Vision & Cook!" Trump tweeted, without elaborating on how he expects the iPhone maker to contribute. Apple is not known to have made any investments in 5G telecoms infrastructure to date and is yet to release a 5G device.
- Reuters
US STOCKS-Futures dip after mixed signals on U.S.-China trade
U.S. stock index futures were slightly lower on Thursday, as mixed signals on trade and a row between Washington and Beijing over the Hong Kong protests fanned concerns about the timing of a deal to end their prolonged tariff dispute. A report on Thursday said China had invited top U.S. trade negotiators for a new round of face-to-face talks in Beijing, soothing investor nerves after Reuters reported on Wednesday that the trade deal could slide into next year. A U.S. bill in support of Hong Kong, which President Donald Trump is expected to sign into law, also dulled the mood as China vowed strong measures to safeguard its sovereignty and security.
- Reuters
Trump says he asked Apple's Cook to look into helping build 5G in U.S.
WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet on Thursday morning he had asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to look into helping develop telecommunications infrastructure for speedy 5G wireless networks.
- Zacks
Should WisdomTree U.S. LargeCap Fund (EPS) Be on Your Investing Radar?
Style Box ETF report for EPS
- Bloomberg
Disney: Streaming Hero or Supervillain?
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The latest buzz in Hollywood is that the U.S. Justice Department wants to abolish an outdated rule known as the Paramount consent decree, which would allow studio giants to own movie theaters — something that hasn’t been permitted since the 1940s. My first thought was that it's a bit of a nothingburger. Studios like Warner Bros. and Universal probably aren’t eager to scoop up debt-laden cinema operators when their top priority is investing in streaming-TV content and services. And while mom-and-pop theaters may fear the change will breed anti-competitive behavior, that’s not as big of a concern for the big multiplex chains, nor does it signal an end to antitrust oversight. But that doesn’t mean everything is hunky-dory in the industry.Take a look at the U.S. box office this year. The content uniformity aside — four of the top seven movies descended from comic books, and the other three from cartoon franchises — most of the year’s leading films are Walt Disney Co. productions. There are more to come, with “Frozen 2” set to hits theaters on Friday, followed by the December release of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” It has me wondering, is this healthy? Disney films account for nearly a third of the $9.5 billion of cinema tickets sold so far in 2019. Warner Bros., owned by AT&T Inc., lags far behind with a 16% share, trailed by Comcast Corp.’s Universal and Sony Corp.’s namesake distribution business; 20th Century Fox would normally be high in the ranking, too, but Disney acquired it earlier this year as part of an $85 billion deal with Rupert Murdoch.Look, I get it. Lots of people love Disney’s Marvel and animated features, and the box office is simply reflecting that. The situation is more complicated than just looking at the data and determining that the company has too much power; there’s nothing about the industry structurally that would give it an unfair advantage. Disney has just done a really good job of consistently giving fans what they want, and CEO Bob Iger made a series of smart acquisitions that continue to pay off: Pixar in 2006; Marvel in 2009; and Lucasfilm (home of “Star Wars”) in 2012. They’ve all absolutely flourished within Disney, with each bringing with it beloved franchises and story lines just waiting to be further developed and amplified for the big screen.It’s not like Warner Bros., Universal and Sony haven’t had the same opportunities. Warner Bros. has DC Comics, “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings,” and the studio shares a home with HBO and “Game of Thrones.” Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man; it even had the chance to buy the entire Marvel roster in the late 1990s (for pennies compared to what Disney paid). It's hard, though, to imagine Marvel would have become what it is today had it landed at Sony instead of Disney. And that’s kind of my point.Matthew Ball, the former Amazon Studios executive, made a similar argument recently: “Disney isn’t a monopoly,” he tweeted Nov. 5. “Its competitors just need to do better. ... You make success. No one believed in comics being huge 20 years ago.”It's conceivable that Disney may end up atop the streaming world, too. Apple TV+ hasn't lived up to the hype, while AT&T’s HBO Max may suffer for its delayed arrival to the market (in May 2020). In very Comcast fashion, the cable giant isn’t so much plunging into streaming as it is dipping a toe into the waters with its Peacock app next year. And Sony’s PlayStation Vue service has already thrown in the towel. Meanwhile, Disney+ had a wildly successful launch on Nov. 12, signing up 10 million subscribers on the first day, despite widespread technological glitches and shortcomings in app functionality. Disney is also the first to experiment with bundles, a relic of the cable-TV market that I’ve argued will help ease one of the worst consumer pain points of streaming: the inability to access all your favorite content through a single subscription.But when people are rooting for Disney to be the “Netflix killer,” they’re rooting against themselves. Netflix Inc.’s innovation brought us affordable TV entertainment that didn't require a cable subscription or patience for commercial breaks. Its success forced other more complacent companies to rethink their businesses. By contrast, the box office shows what happens when a single company winds up with outsize influence.The Justice Department’s move to terminate the Paramount consent decree may not mean much (Disney wasn’t even one of the studios bound by it). But Disney doesn’t need to buy a theater anyway — it already owns the box office. Other media and tech giants should take that as a warning to step up their streaming game. Healthy competition ensures better content, more choice and further Netflix-like advances. Plus, the world needs only so many superhero flicks.To contact the author of this story: Tara Lachapelle at tlachapelle@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Beth Williams at bewilliams@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Tara Lachapelle is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the business of entertainment and telecommunications, as well as broader deals. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Inside Apple’s iPhone Software Shakeup After Buggy iOS 13 Debut
(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. is overhauling how it tests software after a swarm of bugs marred the latest iPhone and iPad operating systems, according to people familiar with the shift.Software chief Craig Federighi and lieutenants including Stacey Lysik announced the changes at a recent internal “kickoff” meeting with the company’s software developers. The new approach calls for Apple's development teams to ensure that test versions, known as “daily builds,” of future software updates disable unfinished or buggy features by default. Testers will then have the option to selectively enable those features, via a new internal process and settings menu dubbed Flags, allowing them to isolate the impact of each individual addition on the system.When the company’s iOS 13 was released alongside the iPhone 11 in September, iPhone owners and app developers were confronted with a litany of software glitches. Apps crashed or launched slowly. Cellular signal was inconsistent. There were user interface errors in apps like Messages, system-wide search issues and problems loading emails. Some new features, such as sharing file folders over iCloud and streaming music to multiple sets of AirPods, were either delayed or are still missing. This amounted to one of the most troubled and unpolished operating system updates in Apple’s history.“iOS 13 continues to destroy my morale,” Marco Arment, a well known developer, wrote on Twitter. “Same,” replied Jason Marr, co-creator of grocery list app AnyList. “Apple's really shown a lack of respect for both its developers and its customers with iOS 13.” The issues show how complex iPhones have become and how easily users can be disappointed by a company known for the smooth integration of hardware and software. Annual software updates timed for release with the latest iPhones are a critical way for Apple to add new capabilities and keep users from defecting to archrival Android. Refreshed operating systems also give developers more tools for app creation, catalyzing more revenue for Apple from its App Store. Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller declined to comment.The new development process will help early internal iOS versions to be more usable, or “livable,” in Apple parlance. Prior to iOS 14’s development, some teams would add features every day that weren’t fully tested, while other teams would contribute changes weekly. “Daily builds were like a recipe with lots of cooks adding ingredients,” a person with knowledge of the process said. Test software got so crammed with changes at different stages of development that the devices often became difficult to use. Because of this, some “testers would go days without a livable build, so they wouldn’t really have a handle on what’s working and not working,” the person said. This defeated the main goal of the testing process as Apple engineers struggled to check how the operating system was reacting to many of the new features, leading to some of iOS 13’s problems.Apple measures and ranks the quality of its software using a scale of 1 to 100 that’s based on what’s known internally as a “white glove” test. Buggy releases might get a score in the low 60s whereas more stable software would be above 80. iOS 13 scored lower on that scale than the more polished iOS 12 that preceded it. Apple teams also assign green, yellow and red color codes to features to indicate their quality during development. A priority scale of 0 through 5, with 0 being a critical issue and 5 being minor, is used to determine the gravity of individual bugs.The new strategy is already being applied to the development of iOS 14, codenamed “Azul” internally, ahead of its debut next year. Apple has also considered delaying some iOS 14 features until 2021 — in an update called “Azul +1” internally that will likely become known as iOS 15 externally — to give the company more time to focus on performance. Still, iOS 14 is expected to rival iOS 13 in the breadth of its new capabilities, the people familiar with Apple’s plans said.The testing shift will apply to all of Apple’s operating systems, including iPadOS, watchOS, macOS and tvOS. The latest Mac computer operating system, macOS Catalina, has also manifested bugs such as incompatibility with many apps and missing messages in Mail. Some HomePod speakers, which run an iOS-based operating system, stopped working after a recent iOS 13 update, leading Apple to temporarily pull the upgrade. The latest Apple Watch and Apple TV updates, on the other hand, have gone more smoothly. Apple executives hope that the overhauled testing approach will improve the quality of the company’s software over the long term. But this isn’t the first time that Apple engineers have heard this from management.Last year, Apple delayed several iOS 12 features — including redesigns for CarPlay and the iPad home screen — specifically so it could focus on reliability and performance. At an all-hands meeting in January 2018, Federighi said the company had prioritized new features too much and should return to giving consumers the quality and stability that they wanted first.Apple then established so-called Tiger Teams to address performance issues in specific parts of iOS. The company reassigned engineers from across the software division to focus on tasks such as speeding up app launch times, improving network connectivity and boosting battery life. When iOS 12 came out in the fall of 2018, it was a stable release that required just two updates in the first two months.That success didn’t carry over to this year. The initial version of iOS 13 was so buggy that Apple has had to rush out several patches. In the first two months of iOS 13, there have been eight updates, the most since 2012 when Federighi took over Apple’s iOS software engineering group. The company is currently testing another new version, iOS 13.3, and there’s already a follow-up in the works for the spring.About a month before Apple’s 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the company’s software engineers started to realize that iOS 13, then known internally as “Yukon,” wasn’t performing as well as previous versions. Some people who worked on the project said development was a “mess.”By August, realizing that the initial iOS 13.0 set to ship with new iPhones a few weeks later wouldn’t hit quality standards, Apple engineers decided to mostly abandon that work and focus on improving iOS 13.1, the first update. Apple privately considered iOS 13.1 the “actual public release” with a quality level matching iOS 12. The company expected only die-hard Apple fans to load iOS 13.0 onto their phones.The timing of the iOS 13.1 update was moved up by a week to Sept. 24, compressing the time that iOS 13.0 was Apple’s flagship OS release. New iPhones are so tightly integrated with Apple software that it would have been technically impossible to launch the iPhone 11 with iOS 12, and since 13.1 wasn’t ready in time, Apple’s only choice was to ship with 13.0 and update everyone to 13.1 as quickly as it could.While the iOS 13 issues did upset iPhone owners, they still updated fairly quickly. As of mid-October, half of all Apple device users were running a version of iOS 13, according to Apple. That upgrade pace is still far ahead of Google’s Android.Once iOS 13.1 was released, Apple’s software engineering division pivoted to iOS 13.2 with a quality goal of being better than iOS 12. This update has had fewer complaints than its predecessors in the iOS 13 family but did introduce a short-lived bug around apps closing in the background when they shouldn’t.“iOS 13 has felt like a super-messy release, something we haven't seen this bad since iOS 8 or so,” Steve Troughton-Smith, a veteran developer of Apple apps, wrote on Twitter.To contact the author of this story: Mark Gurman in Los Angeles at mgurman1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Alistair Barr at abarr18@bloomberg.net, Vlad SavovFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Goldman’s CEO Defends Apple Card, Says ‘There’s No Gender Bias’
(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Solomon forcefully denied customer allegations of gender bias in setting credit limits for the Apple Card, pledging to address a social media and political uproar with more transparency when making decisions.“There’s no gender bias in our process for extending credit,” Solomon told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Thursday from the New Economy Forum in Beijing. “There’s no question that different applicants can get different results, and that can be for a variety of reasons.”Solomon’s blunt defense of the card signaled confidence in the face of demands from some U.S. lawmakers, including Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, that the company provide more information on whether its computer models may be unintentionally cementing decades of gender bias when helping to issue the card. Tech entrepreneur David Heinemeier Hansson set off the furor with a viral tweet saying he was allowed to borrow 20 times as much as his wife, even though he has a lower credit score and they reported the same income.“We’re going to work over time to do more to deliver more transparency to our clients,” Solomon said. He praised the card, created in a partnership with Apple Inc., for giving applicants instant decisions. “We’re committed to working with Apple to improve that transparency so that it’s a unique and differentiated product.”Goldman has previously said it doesn’t take gender or marital status into account when determining creditworthiness. The bank has said it’s introducing the ability for household members to share an Apple Card credit line and that it welcomes a discussion of the topic with policy makers and regulators.The New Economy Forum is being organized by BloombergMedia Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg NewsTo contact the reporter on this story: Cathy Chan in Hong Kong at kchan14@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Candice Zachariahs at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net, David ScheerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Investing.com
Stocks - U.S. Futures Slightly Lower as China Offers to Host Trade Talks
Investing.com - U.S. futures were down slightly as trade tensions remained in focus after reports that China has invited Washington for face-to-face talks in Beijing.
- Investing.com
Top 5 Things to Know in the Market on Thursday
1\. China talks tough on HK, underlining trade impasse
