Washington: In a week that has seen hundreds of billions in market value wiped out at the biggest technology firms, Apple is bucking the trend with another set of resilient results.
Apple jumped 7.6 per cent on Friday and added more than $150 billion in market value after the iPhone maker’s revenue and profit both topped analysts’ estimates. In contrast, fellow megacaps Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. saw their shares tumble after reporting results this week, shedding $477 billion in combined market value in the trading session immediately after the results.
Apple’s slight beat on revenue in the fourth quarter at a time when most large technology companies are struggling “shows a resilient business model,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anurag Rana.
Earlier on Friday, Amazon fell as much as 12 per cent to briefly dip below $1 trillion in market value, as the e-commerce and cloud computing company joined Microsoft in providing weak updates to its cloud business - fast-growing divisions for both tech giants.
Overall, Apple turned out to be this week’s bright spot among many disappointing earnings releases from technology companies, said Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank.
“Apple’s performance the past year with a cost-of-living crisis, supply chain constraints and soaring input costs has been phenomenal and last night’s result confirms that Apple is a fortress that can withstand the volatile environment,” he said.
