Apple and Starbucks Fell as Goldman Sachs Warned of China

Apple and Starbucks Fell as Goldman Sachs Warned of China ## Apple and Starbucks Today, the stocks of the US tech giant Apple (AAPL) and coffee store chain Starbucks (SBUX) fell. At 11:15 AM, Apple was down 0.8% while Starbucks was trading with 1.3% losses for the day. While the broader-market weakness could be a factor driving these two stocks down today, let’s take a look at another important factor. ## Goldman Sachs warned of China Goldman Sachs (GS) analyst Karen Holthouse said in a note to investors, “The recent AAPL [Apple] announcement (while potentially also product-driven) cited trade concerns/macro, and MCD [McDonald’s] acknowledged softer trends in the region at a late November event,” reported CNBC. She added that Goldman Sachs’ “macro team also expects a continued slow down in GDP, at least partially driven by consumption.” Holthouse thinks Starbucks could be the next US firm to warn investors of China’s slowdown. She downgraded her rating of Starbucks to “neutral” from “buy” and also cut the price target to $68 from $75. On January 2, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, in a letter to investors, lowered the company’s guidance for the quarter ended December 29, citing weakness in China among other internal factors. A continued slowdown in China might affect the future growth of many other companies. Today at 11: 25, the S&P 500 Index (SPY) and NASDAQ Composite Index (QQQ) (VTI) both were trading with 0.4% losses. YUM! Brands (YUM) and McDonald’s Corporation (MCD) were down 1.7% and up 0.1%, respectively.