🚀Apple $110B Share Buyback

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Market Overview
Read time 1.4 minutes

Year To Date Performances:

1. Apple's shares surged 7% in after-hours trading as the company reported quarterly earnings that surpassed expectations and announced an unprecedented $110 billion stock buyback program. Despite a 4% decline in overall sales and a 10% drop in iPhone sales compared to the previous year, Apple achieved a revenue of $90.75 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $90.01 billion. Notably, services revenue increased by 14.2% to $23.9 billion, while Mac sales rose 4% to $7.45 billion. However, iPad revenue declined by 17% to $5.6 billion. Apple's strong performance in services and a better-than-expected outcome in China, where sales only fell by 8%, provided some positive highlights amidst the overall sales dip. CEO Tim Cook highlighted the impact of a tough comparison year and expressed optimism about Apple's future, especially with upcoming AI announcements.

2. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hinted at the possibility of a rate cut later this year amidst recent upticks in inflation, which cast doubt on easing inflationary pressures. Despite this, the Fed left interest rates unchanged at 5.25%-5.5%. Powell indicated that any future rate increases would require clear evidence that existing policies are insufficient to reduce inflation to the target level of 2%. Additionally, the Fed plans to reduce the pace at which it is shrinking its balance sheet starting in June, lowering the cap on Treasury securities from $60 billion to $25 billion per month, while maintaining the cap on mortgage-backed securities at $35 billion, resulting in a total monthly reduction of approximately $40 billion in its portfolio.

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4. Headlines

   1. Tesla has cut its entire 500-person supercharger team, this is apparently in response to EU and US regulators requiring Tesla to provide other brands access to the supercharger network reducing its strategic value to Tesla.

   2. Johnson & Johnson has reached a $6.5B settlement associated with its talc products.

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