Apple shares fall 3% in premarket after China reportedly considers probe into App Store practices

Published

9 months ago

February 5, 2025

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China reportedly considers probe into Apple's App Store practices

Apple shares fell on Wednesday after Bloomberg reported that Chinese regulators are considering whether to open a formal probe into the iPhone giant’s App Store fees and policies.

Shares of Apple were down 2.66% at 09:34 a.m. London time in premarket trading.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) is looking into policies that include Apple taking a cut of as much as 30% on in-app spending, as well as blocking third-party payment services and app stores, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

China’s market regulator has not decided whether to formally open an investigation into Apple, according to the report.

Apple and China’s Ministry of Commerce was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

The news comes as trade tensions between the U.S. and China ramp up under the administration of President Donald Trump, one month into his second term.

Apple has maintained that its strict App Store policies are designed to protect users and improve the experience across its products.

China this week also opened a probe into Google over alleged antitrust violations, although the market regulator did not supply details over the focus of the investigation.

The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that the SAMR is also considering a probe into U.S. chipmaker Intel.

Apple’s App Store has come under scrutiny from regulators globally. It was forced to open up its App Store in Europe, under the sweeping Digital Markets Act in the EU. This means that it now allows non-Apple companies to offer app stores in Europe, and app developers can also use third-party payment systems.

If the China probe goes ahead, it would cause further headache for Apple in one of its biggest markets. The Cupertino giant is already facing stiff competition from local players like Huawei that are eating away at its smartphone market share. Apple sales in Greater China declined 11% year-on-year in the December quarter.

Technology

CNBC Daily Open: Too early to fret about tech pullback?

Published

5 hours ago

November 10, 2025

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CNBC Daily Open: Too early to fret about tech pullback?

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on November 07, 2025 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

November is historically the best month for the S&P 500, which gains an average of 1.8% during the period, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.

But the first full trading week of the month saw stocks caught in November rains.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each lost more than 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed around 3% — that’s its largest weekly loss since the tech-heavy index slumped 10% in the week ended April 4.

A few months ago, tariffs were the shadows that stalked stocks. Now, it’s fears that artificial intelligence-related stocks are trading at prices disconnected from what the firms are actually worth.

“You’ve got trillions of dollars tied up in seven stocks, for example. So, it’s inevitable, with that kind of concentration, that there will be a worry about, ‘You know, when will this bubble burst?‘” CEO of DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank, Tan Su Shan told CNBC.

Goldman Sachs’ CEO David Solomon also thinks choppy waters might be ahead.

“It’s likely there’ll be a 10 to 20% drawdown in equity markets sometime in the next 12 to 24 months,” Solomon said Tuesday at the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in Hong Kong.

That said, a pullback isn’t necessarily bad for stocks. It could even present “buying opportunities” for investors, according to Glen Smith, chief investment officer at GDS Wealth Management.

After all, earnings have been “reassuring” despite worries about tech stocks’ high valuations, Kiran Ganesh, multi-asset strategist at UBS, told CNBC. That means the rain might not last and the rally could find a way to run a little longer.

— CNBC’s Lee Ying Shan, Hugh Leask and Lim Hui Jie contributed to this report.

What you need to know today

Major U.S. index were mixed Friday stateside. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up more than 0.1%, but the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.21% lower. The pan-European Stoxx 600 lost 0.55%. U.S. futures rose Sunday evening stateside.

China consumer prices pick up in October. The consumer price index, released Sunday, showed a 0.2% growth year on year. It beats analysts’ expectations of zero growth and is the first month since June that prices rose.

U.S. government on track to end shutdown. Enough Democratic senators had agreed to vote for a deal that would fund the U.S. government through the end of January, a person familiar with the deal told CNBC.

Another missed jobs report. The ongoing U.S. government shutdown — which is now the longest ever — means the Bureau of Labor Statistics couldn’t release its monthly employment data. Here’s what economists would have expected the report to show.

[PRO] Stocks that could bounce after sell-off. Using CNBC Pro’s stock screener tool, we found several names that are oversold, according to their 14-day relative strength index. This implies they could be due for a recovery in prices.

And finally…

Fluxfactory | E+ | Getty Images

A global wealth boom is fueling a rise in family office imposters

Fundraisers and fraudsters are presenting themselves as family office representatives, seeking to dupe gullible investors — and then there are also imposters who are in it just for an “ego boost,” several industry veterans told CNBC.

An information vacuum seems to have encouraged imposters. In many markets, genuine single family offices, or SFOs, are exempt from registering so long as they manage only family money. That privacy norm often makes verification hard, said industry experts.

— Lee Ying Shan

Technology

Week in review: The Nasdaq’s worst week since April, three trades, and earnings

Published

2 days ago

November 8, 2025

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Week in review: The Nasdaq's worst week since April, three trades, and earnings

Technology

Too early to bet against AI trade, State Street suggests

Published

2 days ago

November 8, 2025

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Too early to bet against AI trade, State Street suggests

Momentum and private assets: The trends driving ETFs to record inflows

State Street is reiterating its bullish stance on the artificial intelligence trade despite the Nasdaq’s worst week since April.

Chief Business Officer Anna Paglia said momentum stocks still have legs because investors are reluctant to step away from the growth story that’s driven gains all year.

“How would you not want to participate in the growth of AI technology? Everybody has been waiting for the cycle to change from growth to value. I don’t think it’s happening just yet because of the momentum,” Paglia told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” earlier this week. “I don’t think the rebalancing trade is going to happen until we see a signal from the market indicating a slowdown in these big trends.”

Paglia, who has spent 25 years in the exchange-traded funds industry, sees a higher likelihood that the space will cool off early next year.

“There will be much more focus about the diversification,” she said.

Her firm manages several ETFs with exposure to the technology sector, including the SPDR NYSE Technology ETF, which has gained 38% so far this year as of Friday’s close.

The fund, however, pulled back more than 4% over the past week as investors took profits in AI-linked names. The fund’s second top holding as of Friday’s close is Palantir Technologies, according to State Street’s website. Its stock tumbled more than 11% this week after the company’s earnings report on Monday.

Despite the decline, Paglia reaffirmed her bullish tech view in a statement to CNBC later in the week.

Meanwhile, Todd Rosenbluth suggests a rotation is already starting to grip the market. He points to a renewed appetite for health-care stocks.

“The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund… which has been out of favor for much of the year, started a return to favor in October,” the firm’s head of research said in the same interview. “Health care tends to be a more defensive sector, so we’re watching to see if people continue to gravitate towards that as a way of diversifying away from some of those sectors like technology.”

The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund, which has been underperforming technology sector this year, is up 5% since Oct. 1. It was also the second-best performing S&P 500 group this week.

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