Apple Inc’s latest quarterly performance blew past expectations this week, as iPhone sales hit an all-time high of US$85.3 billion ($140.8b).
That helped push overall revenues for the three months to December 27 to US$143.8b, prompting an initial 0.7% increase in its stock price to US$258.28 on the Nasdaq.
Apple doesn’t disclose unit number sales but is known to have about a quarter share of all smartphone sales. A base list price for the iPhone 17 of US$799, infers sale numbers of about 106 million phones for the three months, or more than 1.1 million phones per day.
Chief executive Tim Cook described demand for its latest release iPhone 17, as “unprecedented”. It’s the 42nd iteration of the phone since 2007.
At the other end of the spectrum, Microsoft’s stock softened by about 12% after it reported mixed fourth-quarter earnings – with its business services and intelligent cloud revenue beating forecast but personal computing down.
A mixed bag for ‘magnificent seven’ stocks.
Meta up, Microsoft down
And while Microsoft said it expected demand for its Copilot, GitHub, and other AI applications to be key drivers of growth, it cautioned that “supply constraints” could stymie growth.
Down about 10% since the New Year, the tech giant is also trading more than a fifth down on its October 2025 high of US$542.07.
Nvidia Corporation, meanwhile, continued to lead energy stock gains by late trading on Thursday, on the strength of a licencing agreement for the company’s H200 AI chip being finalised in China.
Reuters has reported that ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent had received approval to buy more than 400,000 H200 units, which offer about six times the performance of the older H20 model.
Craigs Investment Partners investment director Mark Lister said while there had been some hiccups, in general, the reporting season to date had been “pretty solid”.
One of the big gainers of last week was Facebook/Instagram owner Meta Platforms, as its stock surged 10% after a positive result driven by strong advertising revenue of US$196.2b.
Market observers have highlighted, however, that the group’s metaverse R&D division, Reality Labs, posted an operating loss of US$19.2b.
House price recovery
The US Federal Reserve, meanwhile, kept its lending rate steady at a range of 3.5% to 3.75%, with the central bank’s market committee’s post-meeting statement noting economic activity had been expanding at a “solid pace”.
The Fed’s decision came as US President Donald Trump said he was narrowing his search for a successor to Fed chair Jerome Powell, whose term as chair ends on May 15.
Lister, however, said the markets didn’t learn much from the meeting.
“The Fed will still be guided by what happens in terms of inflation and the labour market. So maybe a little bit underwhelming for those expecting market-moving news,” he said.
Craig Investment Partners’ Mark Lister.
US dollar weakness and rising precious metals had also continued as a major theme, causing volatility across markets, he said.
Global house prices, meanwhile, were reported to have climbed by an average nominal rate of 2.4% during the third quarter of last year.
International realtor Knight Frank said it was the highest reading in 18 months, with prices pushed along by monetary policy settings, as central banks delivered zero rate hikes and 27 net cuts, extending an easing phase that had begun earlier in the year.
The Knight Frank data, across a 55-country index, showed house price inflation again led by Turkey, which topped the index with growth of 5.2% for the quarter, coming in at an annual 32.2% house price increase.
And while Australia reported an annual increase of 7.2%, New Zealand came in at a 0.1% price decline, with house prices off 0.5% for the quarter, on level pegging with Israel but ahead of Canada, Peru, and China.
Finland, for its part, was on the bottom rung of pricing, down 9.5% for the 12 months to September, on high inflation and an oversupply of new homes.
Knight Frank research head Liam Bailey said while nominal growth was edging higher on the back of rate cuts, real gains were still “hard-won”, as inflation tracked up also.
