Apple’s iPhone 15 series devices are displayed for sale at The Grove Apple retail store on release day in Los Angeles on Sept. 22, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
Apple supplier and lead iPhone assembler Foxconn on Friday reported a revenue drop for the final quarter of 2023 and said it expects a year-over-year decline in sales for its first quarter of 2024.
Foxconn revenue for the last three months of the year totaled NT $1.85 trillion ($59.7 billion), a 5.4% dip from the year-ago period. Foxconn attributed the decrease to weak or flat sales in its computing products,smart consumer electronics products and cloud and networking products. The company’s December revenue also fell 27% year over year.
The outlook follows two downgrades to Apple stock earlier this week. Both firms pointed to softening iPhone sales.
“We are still picking up weakness on iPhone volumes and mix, as well as a lack of bounce-back in Macs, iPads and wearables,” Barclays analysts wrote in a note to investors Tuesday.
“The biggest takeaway from the latest checks is incrementally worse IP15 data points out of China, together with developed markets remaining soft,” the note said, referring to the iPhone 15. The downgrade put a drag on shares of Foxconn and other Apple suppliers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on Tuesday.
Piper Sandler issued its downgrade Thursday. “We are concerned about handset inventories entering into 1H24 and also feel that growth rates have peaked for unit sales,” Piper Sandler’s Harsh Kumar wrote, noting that he expects a recovery in the handset market sometime during the second half of 2024.
Shares of Apple are down about 5% since the start of the year.
Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis delivers remarks before Gov. Ron DeSantis took to the stage during his Don’t Tread on Florida Tour in Sarasota on Nov. 6, ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm election, 2022.
Fresh off its victories in the 2024 election cycle, the crypto industry is going big in Florida.
Affiliates of the Fairshake super PAC, a fundraising group that helped elect pro-crypto candidates up and down the ticket, is trying to boost Republican candidates in two Florida races, which could determine whether Republicans hold their thin House of Representatives majority.
The vacancies emerged after sitting Republican members left to join President Donald Trump’s second administration. One of them, former Congressman Matt Gaetz, withdrew his nomination for attorney general as he faced a number of legal controversies. The other, Michael Waltz, stepped down to become Trump’s national security adviser.
Fairshake is backing State Sen. Randy Fine with $1.16 million in ad spending, and investing another $345,000 to support Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer. Both have expressed support for digital assets.
Orlando school teacher Josh Weil is the Democratic nominee going up against Fine for the seat previously held by Waltz. Democrat Gay Valimont, a gun violence prevention activist in Pensacola, is looking to take over Gaetz’s seat.
Early voting in Florida begins this weekend. Democrats are aiming to flip both seats in races that have brought in more than $16 million combined, with the vast majority of the cash going towards backing the challengers. The districts have historically leaned red, but Democrats see an opportunity to compete due to the market and economic volatility that have headlined President Trump’s first two months in office.
Fairhsake, which aims to shape Congress in a way that supports favorable crypto regulation, is backed by crypto companies including Coinbase and Ripple as well as venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. It emerged as a major political force in the 2024 House and Senate races, outraising sectors like oil and banking. Fairshake and its affiliates brought in around $170 million in the 2024 cycle, and have $116 million in cash on hand.
The House is currently operating four members short due to recent Democratic vacancies in Texas and Arizona. A sweep by Democrats in those races and the Florida contests could leave Republicans with just a one-seat majority.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at the Microsoft Build AI Day event in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 1, 2024.
Chalinee Thirasupa | Reuters
With about 10 minutes left until the market’s close, Microsoft’s stock was down for the week. It would’ve been the first eight-week losing streak since 2008.
But the shares popped just before the end of trading, pushing the stock up 0.7% for the week to close at $391.26. It’s still down 7% for the year.
The last time Microsoft had a weekly slump like its seen this year was between January and February 2008, when the country was in the midst of a financial crisis. Microsoft shares fell nine straight weeks.
Microsoft’s 2025 downdraft is notable as the company is viewed as central to the artificial intelligence boom. It has a hefty stake in OpenAI, is investing heavily in its Azure cloud infrastructure and has many products that are incorporating generative AI technologies.
Along with its megacap peers, Microsoft has seen a recent pullback on concerns that President Donald Trump’s tariffs and massive cost cuts will hurt the economy, possibly leading to a recession.
Since reaching a closing high of $467.56 in July 2024, Microsoft is down about 16%, pushing its market cap to $2.9 trillion. The company issued disappointing revenue guidance on Jan. 30.
Within cloud and AI, competition is heating up across the board from rivals like Amazon and Google as well as from emerging startups. Earlier this week, Google announced its intent to acquire cloud security startup Wiz for $32 billion.
The StubHub logo is seen in a former store in New York City on April 18, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
StubHub, an online marketplace for reselling tickets, on Friday filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “STUB.”
In its prospectus for an initial public offering, the company said it had a net loss of $2.8 million on revenue of $1.77 billion for 2024, compared with a $405 million profit on $1.37 billion in revenue for 2023.
StubHub has been a longtime player in the ticketing industry since its launch in 2000. It was purchased by eBay for $310 million in 2007, but reacquired by its co-founder Eric Baker in 2020 for $4 billion through his new company Viagogo.
More than 40 million tickets were sold on StubHub’s marketplace last year from roughly 1 million sellers, the company said in its prospectus.
StubHub had eyed an IPO last year, but it shelved its plans due to stagnant market conditions, CNBC previously reported.
Online ticketing rival SeatGeek was evaluating a potential IPO last year, according to media reports. Bloomberg reported in June that Citigroup and Wells Fargo joined son the company’s planned listing. Other StubHub competitors include Vivid Seats, which was taken public via a special purpose acquisition company in 2021, and Live Nation.
After an extended IPO lull dating back to early 2022, the market is showing clear signs of thawing. Artificial intelligence infrastructure provider CoreWeave is expected to debut next week. Klarna, a provider of buy now, pay later loans filed its IPO prospectus last Friday. Earlier in March, Hinge Health, a provider of digital physical therapy services, filed with the SEC.
Cloud software vendor ServiceTitan hit the market in December, marking the first significant venture-backed tech IPO since Rubrik’s debut in April. A month before that, Reddit started trading on the NYSE.
There haven’t been many other tech IPOs of note in the U.S. since late 2021, when rising interest rates and soaring inflation pushed investors out of risky assets.