Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Nvidia (NVDA) made news heading into the end of this holiday shortened trading week. Here are the headlines and our take on each. AAPL YTD mountain Apple (AAPL) year-to-date performance The news: Apple smartphone sales in China reportedly lagged those of Hauwei and Xiaomi during the country’s recent Singles Day shopping event. The number of iPhone units sold fell 4% from last year during the roughly two-week sales period from Oct. 30 to Nov. 12, Reuters reported Thursday, citing data from Counterpoint Research. By comparison, Huawei and Xiaomi posted sales growth of 66% and 28%, respectively. Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives on Friday argued that Apple’s smartphone standing in Asia remains solid. Asia supply chain checks for Apple’s iPhone 15 remain “very firm,” Ives wrote, adding that the firm has not any major negative sales revisions going into the holiday season. Ives, who has an outperform rating on Apple shares, said the company is in “a major position of strength into 2024 and remains one of our top tech picks.” Shares of Apple fell slightly Friday, but remain up 52% this year. The Club take: We aren’t paying too much attention to the recent data for iPhone sales, nor do we think the figures indicate anything broader about the health of the tech giant’s business. Yes, there is smartphone competition to the iPhone in China, but Apple remains an aspirational brand there (and everywhere) because of its pricing, product quality and closed ecosystem. Similar to Ives’ take, we’re bullish on Apple’s position in the continent broadly. We are also optimistic about management’s efforts to expand into India to grab smartphone market share from the world’s most-populous country. This will further diversify Apple’s supply chain and curb downside risk from uncertain geopolitical relations with China — while opening up a massive market into which Apple can sell higher margin services. NVDA YTD mountain Nvidia (NVDA) performance year-to-date…
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