Google goes up by a “Telstra”, Apple car starts…

Google shocked the market last week, not with its numbers (US$3.44b quarterly net profit) but with the revelation that its moonshots were over – meaning that fanciful ideas (like Google Glass, or 1m employees) were off the table, by CFO decree. The comment created a moonshot for investors, though, with Google capitalisation promptly jumping by $70b, or the value of a "Telstra" to US$467b. All eyes are now on Apple, which if you are reading this Wednesday morning will have just reported. If the company hit its consensus quarterly net profit estimate of US$10.5b, that would be triple the Google quarterly profit for 1.6x the market capitalisation. Is Apple cheap? Its own moonshot, the Apple Car, is definitely on the drawing board, and is well beyond the concept stage. There are over 200 people working on the project (known internally as SG5), including some hired from Tesla. Expect a lot of headlines about this come Wednesday during the results briefing. MEANWHILE Read chapter one of "Retirement, Investment and Blue Chips - what you really must know" at (VIEW LINK)