KEY FACTS
- Ongoing worries about smartphone demand have pushed Apple’s share price down 4% since the start of the new year, after the company’s stock rose 48% in 2023.
- Meanwhile, Microsoft shares are up about 2% since the start of this year, after adding 57% to their value in 2023.
- Apple’s market cap is currently $2.866 trillion. dollars, compared to 2.837 trillion. Microsoft dollars.
- Apple’s value peaked at $3.081 trillion. dollars on December 14, while Microsoft’s peak was on November 28, when the latter’s valuation was $2.844 trillion. dollar.
KEY STORY
iPhone sales in China fell 30% in the first week of 2024, Jefferies analysts said, adding that there were signs of growing competitive pressure from Huawei and other local companies.
Sales of Apple’s Vision Pro mixed reality headset begin on February 2 in the US, marking the biggest debut of an Apple product since the iPhone in 2007. However, UBS estimates that Vision Pro sales will be «relatively insignificant» for Apple share price growth in 2024
On several occasions since 2018, Microsoft has briefly taken the lead from Apple as the most valuable company, most recently in 2021, when concerns about supply chain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Apple maker’s share price. iPhone.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
In its most recent quarterly report in November, Apple shared a fourth-quarter sales forecast that missed analysts’ expectations, marred by weak demand for iPads and other portable devices.
Analysts expect Apple’s revenue to rise an average of 0.7% to $117.9 billion in the final quarter of 2023.
For Microsoft, they predict revenue growth of 16% to 61.1 billion dollars, supported by the growth of the cloud business.
