Tech giants Apple and Amazon have defied industry predictions with better-than-expected financial results.

Apple’s success is largely thanks to record-breaking iPhone sales, while Amazon’s is down to cloud computing arm Amazon Web Services (AWS), in spite of last week’s outage which knocked out thousands of websites.

AWS revenue accelerated 20.2% to $33bn (almost £25bn), which CEO Andy Jassy said was a pace it hadn’t seen since 2022. AWS accounts for 60% of Amazon’s total operating income.

Cloud growth has been a key focus for the company in the face of ever-growing pressure from rivals Google and Microsoft, which also reported revenue leaps this week.

iPhone on the charge

With Donald Trump introducing punishing tariffs on India and China – the main manufacturing hubs for the iPhone – Apple’s record revenue has been even more welcome for boss Tim Cook.

The tariffs cost Apple $1.1bn (£824m) during the past quarter and are expected to cost another $1.4bn (just over £1bn) during the final three months of the year, but the new iPhone 17 range is a hit.

Consumers have been won over by a price point that didn’t stray above last year’s model, particularly in the US and Europe, leading to sales totalling $49bn (£36.1bn) during the July-September period – 6% up on last year.

Global market analyst IDC says almost 59 million iPhones were sold worldwide in the July-September quarter, putting Apple second behind Samsung at 61.4 million of their Android-powered phones.

Buoyed by the iPhone results, Apple earned $27.5bn (£21.4bn), or $1.85 per share (£1.44), nearly doubling its profit from a year ago. Revenue climbed 8% from a year ago to $102.5bn (£80bn).

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Wall Street analysts had been cautious about both companies, and their tech rivals, because of uncertainty caused by tariffs and whether investment in AI has been overplayed.

While welcoming its latest results, Amazon has issued a cautious sales outlook for the fiscal fourth quarter, citing continued Trump tariffs as a possible bump in the revenue road.

Companies, including Amazon, are introducing AI into nearly every facet of their operations in hopes of reducing costs and boosting productivity. There have been tens of thousands of job losses at US tech firms this year.

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he did not believe the AI boom was a speculative bubble like the dot-com era, when many companies were “ideas rather than businesses”.

Today’s AI leaders “actually have earnings,” he said.

Sir Keir Starmer has said Rachel Reeves will face no further action over her “inadvertent failure” to obtain a rental licence for her south London home.

The chancellor had come under pressure to explain whether she had broken housing law by not getting the licence for the property when she moved into Number 11 Downing Street last year.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for her to resign or be sacked.

But in a letter published on Thursday night, the prime minister said correspondence shared by Ms Reeves shows her husband had been assured by the couple’s estate agents “that they would apply for a licence on his behalf”.

Sir Keir said it was “regrettable” he had not been made aware of the correspondence sooner, with an initial letter the chancellor sent him on Wednesday having suggested she was “not aware that a licence was necessary”.

A second letter from Ms Reeves on Thursday informed the prime minister that she had found correspondence between the letting agent and her husband about applying for the licence on their behalf.

Sir Keir said in his reply: “I understand that the relevant emails were only unearthed by your husband this morning, and that you have updated me as soon as possible.”

The PM labelled the incident “an inadvertent failure” and said he sees “no need” for further action.

Lettings agency apologises

Number 10 also published advice given to the PM by his independent ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, saying he’d found “no evidence of bad faith”.

The owner of lettings agency Harvey and Wheeler has released an apology to the chancellor.

Gareth Martin confirmed a member of his staff said they would apply for the licence – but this was never done, as the person “suddenly resigned” prior to the start of the tenancy.

He said: “We deeply regret the issue caused to our clients as they would have been under the impression that a licence had been applied for.”

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Ms Reeves had immediately faced calls to leave her post after a report in the Daily Mail, which saw her admit to mistakenly breaching local council housing rules by failing to secure the licence.

The newspaper reported Ms Reeves had failed to pay for a “selective” licence when renting out her family home in Dulwich, south London, which she has left while living in Downing Street as chancellor.

The Housing Act 2004 gives councils the power to make landlords accredit themselves in certain areas.

Ms Reeves has apologised over the incident, and for the delay in clarifying what advice her husband had received from the estate agent.

“I am sorry about this matter and accept full responsibility for it,” she told the PM.

Number 10 has consistently backed Ms Reeves ahead of her delivering the budget on 26 November.

The government hinting at a rise in income tax at the budget only to not go through with it in a bid to win over voters would be “deplorable”, according to Labour peer Harriet Harman.

Reports are swirling that the chancellor is considering a manifesto-breaking hike when she delivers her crucial fiscal statement next month – and Sir Keir Starmer failed to rule it out at PMQs this week.

The Daily Telegraph says Rachel Reeves is considering a proposal by the Resolution Foundation think tank to cut national insurance by 2p and add it to income tax – protecting workers while hitting pensioners and landlords.

But Baroness Harman warned ministers against “manipulative” briefing to the media ahead of the budget, as the constant speculation “will only make people anxious”.

She told Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast that it would be the “worst sort of briefing and political games playing”.

“I hope they’re not seeding the idea there’s going to be an increase in income tax announced at the budget so they can get credit for not announcing it, because I just think that’s manipulative of public opinion,” she said.

Baroness Harman added: “If they’re thinking about it, that’s one thing – but if they’re putting it out when they actually know they’re not going to do it, I just think that’s deplorable.”

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Baroness Harman said Ms Reeves has three options to deal with the gap in the public finances: cutting spending, increasing borrowing or raising tax revenue.

She said spending cuts are problematic as departments like health, education, transport, and councils need more investment – and will likely be voted down by Labour MPs.

Increasing borrowing would mean paying more interest, she said, and that would risk being seen as breaching a manifesto commitment on the chancellor’s fiscal rules.

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Raising income tax, national insurance or VAT would also breach the manifesto, which Baroness Harman said would raise questions about everything Labour said had promised.

“What does it mean about what you meant at the time?” she said.

“Did you not mean it at the time? Were you just saying it to get people’s votes, or did you say it unwisely because you didn’t realise what your scope was going to be?

“Either is really bad.”

Ms Reeves will deliver the budget on 26 November.