It seems the holiday season has not been a joyful one for some of the major American tech companies. A turbulent Chinese market and the looming storm clouds of a US-China trade war have deeply affected the stock prices and market caps of Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google. There may be some at Microsoft crowing over the company’s lead over Apple in market capitalization value (US$777.5 billion vs. US$743.8 billion), but the Redmond company has also suffered losses in the financial markets, with its NASDAQ stock price hovering around the US$100 mark at the time of writing.
Apple’s spectacular fall is the most noticeable out of the four; the company is rapidly closing in on its 52 week low of U$150.24. The current price is US$156.75, which is a horror story for share-holders who were enjoying a value of over US$230 at the start of October. Numerous reasons have already been given for Apple’s stock market woes, and now it appears there are a couple more issues to add to the pile.
There have been some questions over the structural quality of Apple’s new iPad Pro 2018, with some customers reporting warped devices. If that wasn’t enough for the company to deal with, it seems clear that investors have been getting nervous about iPhone model bans and partial bans taking place in important markets like China and Germany, due to lawsuits issued by Qualcomm. However, there could still be a happy ending for Apple, as the company will be buying its own stock. With a stock price standing around US$156, it’s a buyer’s market.