Apple’s Wall Street woes continued Tuesday as shares of the iPhone maker headed toward their lowest level in more than four months as investor anxiety mounts about Apple’s artificial intelligence efforts and its slumping China business.
Apple stock fell more than 2% shortly after market open to as low as $170.20, registering its lowest price since Nov. 1, and heading toward its fifth consecutive losing session.
The primary catalyst for Tuesday’s losses was a report from Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research indicating iPhone sales fell 24% year-over-year over the first six weeks of 2024, an unwelcome finding considering China accounts for more than 15% of Apple’s revenues and sales in the region already fell 13% in Apple’s most recent quarter, on an annual basis.
The reported slump in iPhone sales in China, which builds on the slow iPhone growth narrative weighing on Apple earlier this year, coincides with mounting analyst concerns about Apple falling behind its big tech peers in AI.
Apple stock has returned -11% year-to-date and 14% over the last 12 months, which is far worse than the S&P 500 (up 8% year-to-date, 29% over the past year).
Apple shares “are at a crossroads,” declared Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett in a Tuesday note to clients, hypothesizing Apple may have lost its “luster” on Wall Street following its sunsetting of its electric vehicle project and the “uninspiring” launch of its Vision Pro mixed reality headset.
BIG NUMBER
$368 billion. That’s how much market capitalization Apple has lost in 2024, bringing its valuation to $2.6 trillion and causing Apple to lose its mantle as the world’s most valuable company to Microsoft. Microsoft and Nvidia, the world’s third-largest firm, have gained about $240 billion and $920 billion in market value year-to-date, respectively.
Comments
Recent Market Movements & News:Executive Departure:
Paul Meade, Apple’s hardware chief for the Vision Pro and smart glasses, left the company to join OpenAI, marking a notable talent loss in the AI and hardware space.Price Increases: Apple raised retail prices for its MacBooks and iPads to offset soaring memory and storage component costs driven by the AI datacenter buildout.
Supply Chain Hurdles:
The company is seeking U.S. government approval to purchase memory chips from a blacklisted Chinese firm to mitigate financial and supply pressures.
Stock Performance:
Shares have experienced recent short-term pullbacks amid tech sell-offs but maintain a solid valuation and strong historical performance.
Macroeconomics and Microeconomics:
Earlier this year, Mono Technologies assembled and shipped nearly 1,000 units of its flagship product, a $600 router development kit. Co-founder Tomaž Zaman, who started Mono in 2024, found early traction with networking aficionados, who use the product to speed their internet connections.
Then came the memory crunch, which has driven up the cost to produce practically every electronic device on the planet. Now, Zaman isn’t sure what to do, especially for the 1,300 prospective customers who put down a $100 deposit for his next production run.
Mono’s cost for 8 gigabytes of a type of DRAM from Micron
shot up from $35 when he was first developing the product to $300 today. At his three-person company, Zaman said he hasn’t decided if he’ll go ahead with a second batch and increase the price by at least one-third, or introduce a new model with 75% less memory.
“Even a router of our class, it’s a poor value if you make it at $900, $1,000,” Zaman told CNBC in an interview. “But we have to, or we trim it down to the bare minimums.”
Zaman’s experience is becoming common across the consumer electronics market, from iconic devices like iPads and Xbox consoles to niche products that are barely past the testing phase. Costs are soaring due to a global supply crunch caused by the artificial intelligence boom, which has led chipmakers like Nvidia
to suck up ever-increasing amounts of memory for their processors and advanced systems.
Price Hikes Announcements:
Both Apple and Microsoft, announced price hikes this week, have a hefty cash cushion, supply chain leverage and customers numbering in the millions or billions, a much wider swath of businesses face potentially dire straits. Most consumer electronics companies have little margin to spare and can’t confidently raise prices in an economy already grappling with inflationary pressures.
Bybit, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is pleased to announce crypto purchases via Apple Pay will come with zero fees from now until September 24, 2026, offering a faster, more accessible, and affordable way to accumulate digital assets.
The offer spans 36 supported fiat currencies, allowing purchases using any eligible bank card linked to Apple Wallet. For a limited time, eligible Apple Pay purchases of 100 USDT or equivalent on Bybit will incur zero fees, benefiting new entrants to the crypto space and retail traders looking to adjust positions.
The purchase flow is designed for simplicity. Through Bybit One-Click Buy, eligible users can select a preferred cryptocurrency and payment currency, choose Apple Pay as the payment method, and complete a transaction in just a few steps, without the fee overhead for regular card-based crypto purchases.
No more transfers or long waiting time, now users simply need a bank card supported by their Apple Wallet to start their crypto journey. Compatible with Apple Pay and dozens of currencies, Bybit extends the speed and familiarity of Apple’s payment ecosystem to crypto purchases, allowing users to tap into the fast-moving world of digital assets within seconds.
The limited-time zero-fee feature further lowers the barrier to entry, making it easier and more cost-effective for users to acquire crypto without navigating complex funding processes or absorbing additional transaction costs.
Bybit is mission bound to expand accessible, low-friction payment options to everyone as it builds towards its New Financial Platform vision.
Apple (AAPL) Stock Investment Thesis - Q42026
Key Growth Drivers & Risks
Services Revenue: High-margin recurring revenue from the App Store, iCloud, Apple Pay, and subscriptions provides a resilient base even during fluctuating hardware upgrade cycles.
AI & Product Supercycles: On-device AI features continue to drive hardware upgrades across iPhones, iPads, and Mac devices.
Valuation & Valuation Risks: Trading at a forward P/E ratio above 35x, market sentiment remains sensitive to supply chain bottlenecks, macro consumer spending pressures, and regulatory antitrust scrutiny.
Investor Action Plan
Determine Strategy: Decide whether your objective is long-term dividend growth/compounding or short-term momentum trading.
Review Portfolio Allocation: Ensure tech exposure fits your overall risk tolerance rather than over-concentrating in a single mega-cap stock.
Monitor Earnings Reports: Watch quarterly reports for key metrics including iPhone shipment volume, gross margins, and Services segment growth rates.
Latest Apple / Apple Pay Business News :
Bybit, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is pleased to announce crypto purchases via Apple Pay will come with zero fees from now until September 24, 2026, offering a faster, more accessible, and affordable way to accumulate digital assets.
The offer spans 36 supported fiat currencies, allowing purchases using any eligible bank card linked to Apple Wallet. For a limited time, eligible Apple Pay purchases of 100 USDT or equivalent on Bybit will incur zero fees, benefiting new entrants to the crypto space and retail traders looking to adjust positions.
The purchase flow is designed for simplicity. Through Bybit One-Click Buy, eligible users can select a preferred cryptocurrency and payment currency, choose Apple Pay as the payment method, and complete a transaction in just a few steps, without the fee overhead for regular card-based crypto purchases.
No more transfers or long waiting time, now users simply need a bank card supported by their Apple Wallet to start their crypto journey. Compatible with Apple Pay and dozens of currencies, Bybit extends the speed and familiarity of Apple’s payment ecosystem to crypto purchases, allowing users to tap into the fast-moving world of digital assets within seconds.
The limited-time zero-fee feature further lowers the barrier to entry, making it easier and more cost-effective for users to acquire crypto without navigating complex funding processes or absorbing additional transaction costs.
Bybit is mission bound to expand accessible, low-friction payment options to everyone as it builds towards its New Financial Platform vision.
Apple trades at a premium valuation near $4 to $5 trillion, driven by a resilient device ecosystem, high-margin services, and massive capital returns, though it faces mounting pressure to prove its artificial intelligence (AI) monetization strategy.
The Bull Case
Ecosystem Moat:
An installed base of over 2.5 billion active devices locks users into a sticky hardware and software cycle.
High-Margin Services:
Segments like the App Store, Apple Pay, and iCloud generate high-margin revenue (around 75% gross margins), offsetting cyclical hardware slowdowns.
Capital Return Machine:
Apple converts over 100% of net income into free cash flow, funding massive share buybacks that boost earnings per share (EPS).
AI Discipline:
Unlike competitors spending heavily on data centers, Apple avoids the expensive AI infrastructure arms race by integrating on-device models and partnerships.
The Bear Case / Risks
Valuation Pressure:
Trading at roughly 35 times forward earnings, the stock demands near-perfect execution.
Unproven AI Monetization:
The "toll booth" AI model remains heavily scrutinized because Apple relies on third-party integrations rather than direct monetization of proprietary AI models.
Regulatory and Cost Headwinds:
App Store commission pressures, rising memory component costs, and softening demand in China pose ongoing risks to margins and growth.
CUPERTINO, California – Apple will hold its biggest product introduction of the year on Sept 9, kicking off the tenure of new chief executive John Ternus.
The event will take place at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, and be live-streamed on its website, the company said.
The tagline for the gathering is “Surprise and shine”, according to invitations sent to journalists.
Apple is poised to unveil new versions of the products that account for most of its revenue.
This September event will be especially critical, as the company will use it to introduce its first foldable iPhone, entering a market dominated by Samsung Electronics.
As the iconic iPhone nears the 20th anniversary of its introduction, the new foldable design marks the biggest single change to the product’s look. The device will be about the size of a standard passport, and it will open up to reveal a screen roughly the size of a small iPad.