More landmines than goldmines – that has been our view about equity markets, as well as other economic or geopolitical repercussions, for a long time.

And so we’ll begin with a chat that’s primarily about Apple (AAPL) and how it’s impacting the markets. As does the return of buybacks from WellsFargo (WFC) they were allowed is curious in itself); and a mediocre report (I’d say a slight miss) from AT&T (T). Also I’d like to point-out a couple geopolitical issues which are largely ignored as risks to the markets (including currencies). One is the expansion of ISIS beyond the Middle East, to Afghanistan (in the same Tora-Bora region bin Laden used as a hideout long ago), and its determination to foment an upheaval in North Africa; particularly in Morocco and Libya. This is not mentioned in the media; but now Germany is actually considering dispatching troops to Libya to interdict this.

In addition; we might have to consider the implications of the ongoing debate in Europe as to whether the refugee influx is ‘manageable’ as Merkel contends; or is fracturing the EU with ever-greater fallback on assorted individual national plans to cope with an overwhelming challenge. If it’s really fracturing the EU; it puts more pressure on the Euro; further strengthening the Dollar, and thus the pressure on US exports and profits persists. The irony is this improves profits to a lot of European companies; though I think they’d prefer calm cohesiveness.

I am surprised American media doesn’t capture the essence of what’s going on in Denmark, Sweden, France (where again ‘refugees’ impeded the Chunnel as they try to get-into the UK from Calais) and of course the fallout in Germany or in Sweden, in the wake of the outrageous public behavior issues that really are an affront to the well-intended hospitality so many offered immigrants. This all matters, as the EU is the world’s largest trading bloc; imagine the implications if the UK actually votes to exit; or the currency wars if the Euro ever disappeared. I am not saying that happens; but isn’t this one of the year’s biggest stories?

Today’s late ‘conference call’ from Apple bore-out our view that impacted sales (not just for them, but I noted the contrast of their pricing changes in Europe on my most recent visit last August). Today’s call began with Tim Cook highlighting their ‘great results’ in the face of signs of economic signs of confidence, and his reflections on the impact of currency fluctuations.

I don’t disagree; my comment from Amsterdam was that they could ‘get away’ with the price increase that seemed ridiculous (up to $1600 for a 6sPlus now); because the competition isn’t really the issue these days (customer retention is and has been unprecedented for Apple). Some countries have seen declines in price (India); and others are gaining new Apple operations (Italy, with a pledged IOS App research center in Naples); although one wonders if that correlates to the successful effort of mitigating back-taxes due to Italy. (Naples should solidly welcome this project, as it’s not the most tech-oriented nor internet-broadband blessed of Italian cities.)