SAN FRANCISCO: Apple will release quarterly earnings figures Tuesday as it flirts with a history-making, trillion-dollar market value based on its share price.
To hit the trillion-dollar mark, Apple shares would have to climb about seven percent from the $189.91 price logged at the close of official trading Monday on the Nasdaq.
The market is eager for news about demand for iPhones and how the company is riding out trade turbulence between the US and China.
President Donald Trump’s trade wars include 25 percent US tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods, with more on the way, and steep tariffs on steel and aluminum, which provoked China and others to hit back with import duties on US goods.
The Silicon Valley-based company is expected to unveil new iPhone models in the fall, sticking with its practice of releasing upgraded models annually ahead of the year-end holiday shopping season.
Sales of iPhones in the quarter could be tame since many fans have historically either bought handsets in prior months or are holding out for new models on the near horizon.
Apple earnings are likely to be solid, with the average price of iPhones sold rising as buyers opt for the top-end iPhone X.
Billions of dollars that Apple has been spending to buy back shares could help propel the company past a trillion-dollar value mark in the stock market.
Early this year, Apple announced it would buy back $100 billion in shares.
Apple has managed to shine, despite bruises to its image that included being accused of keeping young people addicted to smartphones, slowing performance of older iPhones to motivate upgrades and sidestepping taxes by nestling cash in offshore havens.
The market will be watching to see whether a battery replacement program and software changes to improve performance of older iPhones are costing the company.
Apple has battled with the US government over making iPhones so secure even police can’t peek at data, and prides itself on not making money off people’s personal information the way ad-targeting companies such as Facebook do.
Apple has hammered away at the growing amount of money it takes in from music, applications, games, subscriptions and services it sells to people using its devices.
Money made from services is seen as an important element of diversification away from having to rely heavily on selling iPhones.
A 31 percent rise in services to $9.2 billion in the first three months of this year followed big jumps in Apple Pay, Apple Music and other programs.
Apple earnings arrive with trillion-dollar value near
Apple earnings arrive with trillion-dollar value near
- The market is eager for news about demand for iPhones and how the company is riding out US-China trade turbulence
- Apple earnings are likely to be solid, with the average price of iPhones sold rising as buyers opt for the top-end iPhone X
European gas prices soar almost 50% as Iran conflict halts Qatar LNG output
- Analysts warn prolonged disruption could push prices higher
- Some shipments of oil, LNG through Strait of Hormuz suspended
- Benchmark Asian LNG price up almost 39 percent
LONDON: Benchmark Dutch and British wholesale gas prices soared by almost 50 percent on Monday, after major liquefied natural gas exporter Qatar Energy said it had halted production due to attacks in the Middle East.
Qatar, soon to cement its role as the world’s second largest LNG exporter after the US, plays a major role in balancing both Asian and European markets’ demand of LNG.
Most tanker owners, oil majors and trading houses have suspended crude oil, fuel and liquefied natural gas shipments via the Strait of Hormuz, trade sources said, after Tehran warned ships against moving through the waterway.
Europe has increased imports of LNG over the past few years as it seeks to phase out Russian gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Around 20 percent of the world’s LNG transits through the Strait of Hormuz and a prolonged suspension or full closure would increase global competition for other sources of the gas, driving up prices internationally.
“Disruptions to LNG flows would reignite competition between Asia and Europe for available cargoes,” said Massimo Di Odoardo, vice president, gas and LNG research at Wood Mackenzie.
The Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub, seen as a benchmark price for Europe, was up €14.56 at €46.52 per megawatt hour, or around $15.92/mmBtu, by 12:55 p.m. GMT, ICE data showed.
Prices were already some 25 percent higher earlier in the day but extended gains after QatarEnergy’s production halt.
Benchmark Asian LNG prices jumped almost 39 percent on Monday morning with the S&P Global Energy Japan-Korea-Marker, widely used as an Asian LNG benchmark, at $15.068 per million British thermal units, Platts data showed.
“If LNG/gas markets start to price in an extended period of losses to Qatari LNG supply, TTF could potentially spike to 80-100 euros/MWh ($28-35/mmBtu),” Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING, said. The British April contract was up 40.83 pence at 119.40 pence per therm, ICE data showed.
Europe is also relying on LNG imports to help fill its gas storage sites which have been depleted over the winter and are currently around 30 percent full, the latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed. In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract was down €1.10 at €69.17 a tonne
