Category: Business

Apple Stock Boom Reveals High Consumer Confidence

Shares of Apple, Inc. (AAPL) have increased by 18.8 percent from six months ago, closing at 498.68 on October 15. The rise demonstrates Apple’s boom in comparison with the S&P, which has seen only 6 percent growth in the same period, closing Tuesday at 1649.60.

Much support has been driven by the rollout of the company’s new iPhone 5S and lower-priced iPhone 5C, with the closing price jumping almost 8 points to its recent high of 506.17 on September 9, anticipating CEO Tim Cook’s scheduled September 10 announcement. Software developments in the third and fourth quarters, including the release of operating system iOS7 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and the emergence of free web-based music service iTunes Radio, have also pointed to the company’s continuing growth.

This week, news that Apple had named former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts as their new Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores also provided a boost. After the October 14 announcement, stocks closed at 496.04, a 3.23 increase over the previous day’s closing price.

Healthy revenue reports in 2013 have also helped boost investor confidence, with a price jump from 418.99 to 440.51, the largest of the period, coming upon release of the third-quarter earnings report in July.

The stock’s success comes as its competitors in the phone industry have seen mixed results. With the company’s future in question, BlackBerry’s stock has declined sharply in six months from 13.71 to 8.15, a 40 percent drop. However, Nokia, producers of the Android-based Lumia, have seen prices more than double, moving from 3.44 to 6.92, suggesting that investors with an eye to the smartphone’s future are looking beyond the iPhone.

Apple’s rise also comes in conjunction with positive results for competitors in the computer tech sector. Investors’ interest in smart technology across the board was also borne out by an impressive 20 percent growth for Microsoft over the same period, exceeding Apple’s results. The computer manufacturing sector was less competitive, with Dell’s stock at 13.83 declining by 1.2 percent from six months ago and Hewlett-Packard’s closing price of 22.79 a 10 percent increase from April, but a significant drop-off from that stock’s summer highs.

While the Wall Street Journal has reported that fourth-quarter orders for the iPhone 5C were reduced due to lower than anticipated consumer demand, the same report also reveals that orders for the 5S model increased. With opening weekend sales for both models of over 9 million exceeding analysts’ predictions by two to three million, the higher price point of the 5S will likely also compensate for a more lukewarm response to the 5C.

Apple’s fair value P/E ratio of 12.43 also suggests that investors see stability in the company’s future, with the release of the fourth-quarter report on October 28 likely to reveal continued strong earnings.

(Written for DePaul University’s seminar in Business Reporting)

Green City Market Brings Spring to a Cool Chicago

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Though it’s nine a.m. on an early spring Saturday, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum buzzes.

Colorfully clothed tables crowd rooms on the first and second floor, juxtaposed with museum store wares and signs touting new exhibit “Food: The Nature of Eating.” Shoppers equipped with canvas tote bags peruse offerings from two dozen area farms, as young families drawn to the museum’s collections check their purchases at a second-floor “Veggie Valet” station. There is friendly chatter, much of it from vendors – tips on carrot preparation, discussion of growing methods. For many, that spirit of fellowship is one of Green City Market’s central draws.

Vendors on the first floor of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, April 6, 2013 (Photo by Jacquelyn Thayer)

Vendors on the first floor of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, April 6, 2013 (Photo by Jacquelyn Thayer)

“It’s nice to know who’s going to be consuming your produce,” says Nick Nichols of Nichols Farm & Orchard in Marengo, Illinois. “It ends up being a lot more personal, and you realize where everything’s going.”

Green City Market began in 1998 as Chicago’s first sustainable farmer’s market. Today, the not-for-profit organization operates year-round, hosted indoors at the museum every Saturday from November through April and at an outdoor Clark Street site in the warmer months.

Nichols Farm & Orchard was one of the market’s first vendors.

“It originally started off with I think like 10 farms,” notes the 34-year-old Nichols of an endeavor that now includes nearly 60 vendors in summer. “Definitely a lot more customers now, a lot more people buying local and farm-fresh.”

Nichols Farm & Orchard, situated at the front of the entrance, boasts plentiful offerings even in this cool season. Basil and popping corn supplement a lavish array of root vegetables that includes 10 varieties of potatoes, like the heritage Rose Finn Apple – its poetic name, one product sign informs us, a mistranslation from the German Rosa Tannenzapfen, “pink fir cone.”

Produce, however, is less abundant this week than it will be in summer. Instead, canned goods have become a sideline for some farms, such as Beloit, Wisconsin’s Grass Is Greener, which introduced its Bushel & Peck line of preserves last year.

“There’s already a lot of other fresh produce vendors here, so it’s nice to carve out a niche for yourself,” notes the farm’s Graydon Chapman, 28.

Prepared foods offer another niche. Gayle Voss of Belvidere, Wisconsin’s Prairie Pure Cheese has found one effective strategy for cross-promotion.

“The fresh bread people, when we get outside, are right next to me, and I’m good friends with Al from Nordic Creamery who has fresh butter, and I was thinking ‘Why am I not making grilled cheese?’” laughs the 52-year-old Voss. “I use the toppings from other vendors – the fresh tomatoes, today I have the fresh arugula from Majestic Farm. In the winter I’ll use jarred products from Southport Grocery and Café, but they buy their ingredients from Green City Market.”

Concern for the local is constantly emphasized. Placards at each station highlight “miles to market,” the distance goods have traveled to reach Green City. Most range from 60 to 100 miles; Chicago-based restaurateur Zullo’s is only four. Across the aisle, Dyersville, Iowa’s Becker Lane takes the distance prize at 203.

But distance is relative for Becker Lane, one of the region’s premiere organic pork producers, which offers both meat – featured today in chili prepared tableside – and, more recently, cookies and carnitas.

“This particular market is the only market where [Becker Lane] could showcase their product as a super-local product, as a super-organic product, as a premium product,” says vendor Brad Newman, 29, of Green City’s appeal. “It doesn’t get diluted here. It could be showcased the way it should be.”

Super-local, super-organic, from fresh eggs to beeswax candles to dog bones. This mission is what sets apart Green City Market – and unites the community that gathers here weekly.

(Written for DePaul University’s seminar in Lifestyle Reporting)