I am worried about Apple , a stock I have owned for more than a decade for my Charitable Trust, the portfolio we use at the CNBC Investing Club. Before I explain my concerns on Apple, let me say that long term, as long as the company makes the best products in the world — and it does — we are going to stick with what we haven’t sold. But there are a number of worries here, which I first ran through during our May Monthly Meeting for Investing Club subscribers. Because of the Justice Department’s antitrust pursuits, we need to be concerned that Alphabet won’t be allowed to send them a check for $20 billion to be the default search engine. Sure, Apple can make it up with other methods — maybe they could charge all the other search engines out there for the leads they give them. But that Alphabet deal was $1 a share in easy profits that could go away. Another worry: The battle with Fortnite maker Epic Games over the cut Apple can take from its App Store could cause a 30-cent departure in earnings per share. Again, easy money gone. Plus, despite the endless commitments to build things in the United States, it’s not enough for President Donald Trump. CEO Tim Cook saw that the president didn’t want such a concentration of electronics manufacturing in China because it played into China’s hands to become a world tech power. So, he decided to switch as much building as possible to India to lower Apple’s exposure to Trump’s higher tariffs on Chinese imports. But it wasn’t just a diversification away from China that Trump wants. He won’t be happy until we make iPhones here in the U.S. Those can’t be made for less than $3,000, at least initially, according to some projections. And selling iPhones at that price cedes what has been one of the great American triumphs to rival smartphone maker Samsung, a Korean company. I know, how could there be such an obtuse policy? But without Trump’s blessing, there can be an awful lot of havoc played here against Apple, and I see no blessing being given. I know individual tariffs against individual companies doesn’t seem to be legal. But has that mattered before with this administration? There are always other ways to get a company to say uncle than tariffs, as we are seeing with the Trump administration looking at Apple’s relationship with Alibaba , the best source of new business in China that Apple could ever get. Again, these deals and connections were, for decades, regarded as a sign of American strength. Now, they are regarded as weakness for us and a boost for China. We do know that Cook visited the White House yesterday. He needs the president to endorse his India gambit, so more iPhones can be made there and its tariff risks moderate. OpenAI buying the startup of former Apple chief designer Jony Ive for $6.4 billion, in a bid to make AI-enabled hardware devices, has become another question mark hanging over Apple, though we’ll see how long that lasts. Cook is not going to sit there and take it. The bottom is there’s a lot to be worried about, but that does not mean I don’t like the stock long term. I’m just not ready to buy anymore right here.
