"The lines at Apple's flagship store in Union Square and other locations around the world used to be endlessly long, with hordes of eager customers camping out for days to be among the first to get their hands on the latest products. Ten years ago, the Apple hype seemed unstoppable as the company unveiled a steady stream of gadgets.
Today, however, Apple is at a crossroads. As the Cupertino, California-based company struggles to revive consumer enthusiasm for its products from the past decade, Apple reported its biggest quarterly revenue decline in more than a year."
Both Reuters and the Washington Post are wringing their hands to explain how it can be that Apple shares rose, after it was announced at the quarterly earnings call that revenue fell again; by four percent even from a year earlier, to $90.75 billion. Net profit, however, fell only two percent, to $23.64 billion. Analysts inferred that Apple increased profitability is because the company has become more efficient. Still, the question for Apple is, "What's next?
Crypto crawls upright
Bitcoin seems to be missing from the chart above, but the change in price was less than one percent, which is imperceptible to the naked eye. Ethereum fell harder, but over the entire week, crypto enthusiasts will be pleased that Bitcoin climbed back above $60,000 and Ethereum rebounded to above $3,000.
Some technical analysts are convinced that altcoin season is upon us, but less optimistic souls worry about the U.S. SEC's attempt to classify Ethereum as a security, an investment. That's nonsense, but more on that later in the podcast, scheduled for launch in June.