CNBC Daily Open: More people want the new iPhone — and Apple shares

Published

4 days ago

October 21, 2025

admin

Apple CEO Tim Cook holds new iPhones during an Apple special event at Apple headquarters on Sept. 9, 2025 in Cupertino, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Critics may sneer at the iPhone 17 Pro’s fluorescent orange finish, but Apple’s “Cosmic Orange” smartphone seems to be dazzling where it counts — in sales and shares.

The newest iPhone 17 series, which includes the base iPhone 17 and its overachieving Pro and skinny Air siblings — that come in colors other than orange, to be clear — has been outselling its predecessor in the U.S. and China, according to Counterpoint Research. In China, the iPhone Air reportedly sold out within minutes of going on sale, per the South China Morning Post.

Investors noticed. Shares of Apple popped nearly 4% on the news and closed at an all-time high. That must be welcome news for CEO Tim Cook and investors for a stock that’s been trailing its Magnificent 7 peers. That brings Apple’s year-to-date gains to around 5%, compared with Nvidia’s 36% and 25% for Meta.

Another member of the Mag 7, however, had a bumpy Monday. Amazon’s cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, suffered an outage that took down sites such as Reddit and Snapchat, plunging millions, including yours truly, into existential crises. Still, Amazon shares managed to climb around 1.6%.

U.S. markets also rose more broadly, with major indexes ending Monday in the green. This week, investors will be keeping their eye on the U.S.’ trade developments with China as well as earnings reports from companies such as Netflix, Tesla and Intel — a mix that could make the next few days almost as colorful as Apple’s latest phone.

What you need to know today

And finally…

Liquid cooled servers in an installation at the Global Switch Docklands data centre campus in London, UK, on Monday, June 16, 2025.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

AI set to be a boon for emerging markets — but some investors aren’t convinced

“AI will change everything for emerging markets,” said Anton Osika, CEO and co-founder of Swedish startup Lovable, which allows others to create apps and websites via prompting, removing the need for technical knowledge.

However, AI doesn’t solve structural challenges faced by emerging markets. That means plenty of points of friction still exist, such as local funding availability and confidence that startups will secure revenue, according to Emmet King, managing partner and co-founder of J12 Ventures, an investment firm.

— Tasmin Lockwood

Technology

More demand than supply gives companies an edge, Jim Cramer says

Published

6 hours ago

October 24, 2025

admin

More demand than supply gives companies an edge, Jim Cramer says

“Supply constrained,” are the two of the most important words CNBC’s Jim Cramer said he’s heard so far during earnings season and explained why this dynamic is favorable for companies.

“When you’re supplied constrained, you have the ability to raise prices, and that’s the holy grail in any industry,” he said.

Intel‘s strong earnings results were in part because of more demand than supply, Cramer suggested. He noted that the company’s CFO, David Zinsner, said the semiconductor maker is supply constrained for a number of products, and that “industry supply has tightened materially.”

Along with Intel, other tech names that are also supply constrained and performing well on the market include Micron, AMD and Nvidia, Cramer continued.

These companies don’t have enough product in part because the storage needs of artificial intelligence are incredible high, Cramer said. He added that he thinks demand has overwhelmed supply because semiconductor capital equipment companies didn’t manufacture enough of their own machines as they simply didn’t anticipate such a volume of orders.

Outside of tech, Cramer said he thinks airplane maker Boeing and energy company GE Vernova are also supply constrained, adding that he thinks the former will say it’s short on most of its planes when it reports earnings next week. GE Vernova is supply constrained with its power equipment, like turbines that burn natural gas, he continued, which is the primary energy source for the ever-growing crop of data centers.

GE Vernova and Boeing are also set to be winners because they make big-ticket items that other countries can buy from the U.S. to help close the trade deficit, Cramer added.

“In the end, we have more demand than supply in a host of industries and that’s the ticket for good stock performance,” he said. “I don’t see that changing any time soon.”

Jim Cramer’s Guide to Investing

Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer’s every move in the market.

Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club holds shares of Nvidia and GE Vernova.

Questions for Cramer?
Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC

Want to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up!
Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – Instagram

Questions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? madcap@cnbc.com

Technology

3 takeaways from Intel earnings: Cash flow, foundry progress and hardware surprise

Published

11 hours ago

October 24, 2025

admin

3 takeaways from Intel earnings: Cash flow, foundry progress and hardware surprise

Wall Street remains skeptical on Intel despite its return to profitability

Intel snapped a losing streak of six straight quarterly losses and returned to profitability in the third quarter.

In its first earnings report since the Trump administration acquired a 10% stake in the company, the U.S. chipmaker posted strong revenue, noting robust demand for chips that it expects to continue into 2026.

Client computing revenue, which includes chips for PCs and laptops, grew 5% year over year, benefiting from PC market stabilization and artificial intelligence PC prospects.

CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a call with analysts Thursday that artificial intelligence “is a strong foundation for sustainable long-term growth as we execute.”

The chip strength and demand were bright spots, but there were areas of concern as well, with the company’s foundry business still needing a big break.

Here are three takeaways from the chipmaker’s Q3 report:

Cash flow

“We significantly improved our cash position and liquidity in Q3, a key focus for me since becoming CEO in March,” Tan said on a call with analysts Thursday.

Intel landed an $8.9 billion investment from the U.S. government in August, along with $2 billion from Softbank, but has not yet received the $5 billion tied to a deal with Nvidia. The company expects that deal to close by the end of Q4.

With all of those transactions completed, plus the Altera sale, Intel will have $35 billion in cash on hand, CFO David Zinser told CNBC.

The U.S. government is the company’s biggest shareholder, and Intel stock is up more than 50% since Aug. 22, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced the deal.

“Like any shareholder, we have to keep in touch with them,” Zinser said of the U.S. stake. “We don’t tell them how the numbers are going before the quarter. We generally talk to them like Fidelity,” another Intel shareholder.

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon

Intel 3-month stock chart.

Foundry

The firm’s foundry remains a work in progress.

Revenue fell 2% over the year before, and it has yet to land a major customer.

Intel now has two fabs running 18A nodes, which are designed for AI and high-performance computing applications.

“We are making steady progress on Intel 18A,” Tan said of its latest chip technology. “We are on track to bring Panther Lake to market this year.”

Zinser said the more advanced 14A nodes won’t be put in supply until the company has “real firm demand.”

Old stuff still selling

Zinser said the company’s older chipmaking processes, or nodes, have continued to do well, “and that was probably the part that was more unexpected.”

Zinser said the chipmaker met some of the central processing unit (CPU) demand with inventory on hand, but they will be behind in Q1, “probably Q2 and maybe in Q3.”

The supply crunch has been with older Intel 10 and 7 manufacturing technologies.

Many customers are opting for less advanced hardware to refresh their operating systems, demonstrating enterprises aren’t waiting for cutting-edge chips when proven technology gets the job done.