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Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Apple Tim Cook waves to people during the opening of the first Apple Inc. flagship store in Mumbai, India on April 18, 2023.

Imtiyaz Shaikh | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Apple is scheduled to report fiscal second-quarter results after the close of regular trading on Thursday.

Here’s what analysts are expecting:

  • EPS: $1.43 per share, according to Refinitiv
  • Revenue: $92.96 billion, according to Refinitiv

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Revenue is expected to decrease 4.4% from $97.28 billion in the same quarter a year ago.

Apple prepared investors for a down quarter in January. The company hasn’t provided formal guidance since 2020, but it gives analysts and investors a number of data points that can be used to roughly estimate its performance.

The information it provided earlier this year suggested that sales would drop for a second straight quarter by roughly 5%. Sales of iPads and Macs are expected to see sharp decreases — 12% and 25.4%, respectively — and iPhone sales also likely dropped.

Analysts polled by FactSet expect annual declines in all of Apple’s hardware product lines.

The tech giant’s report comes as the PC and smartphone markets are mired in one of the worst slumps in recent years. Electronics sales are down sharply after many consumers bought new PCs and phones during the pandemic and others are tightening their belts because of high inflation or recession worries.

In the first quarter, PC shipments decreased almost 30%, according to IDC, while smartphone shipments were off 14%.

Apple’s report wraps up earnings season for tech’s mega-cap companies, after Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft all issued results last week. All four topped analyst estimates, though growth rates were still muted compared to prior years.

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While Apple isn’t immune to the broader market slowdown, some analysts hope it will show strength and resiliency because it sells premium products and has loyal customers.

Refinitiv consensus estimates suggest Apple could guide back to growth. They expect 2% expansion in the third quarter. But others are concerned that revenue will keep falling, suggesting that demand for Apple’s products is eroding.

“The eventual outcome might be simply driven by F3Q guidance, where investors might be looking for assurance and visibility into limited downside despite a tough macro,” Samik Chatterjee, an analyst at JPMorgan, wrote in a note this week.

If Apple’s outlook suggests a year-over-year decline that’s less than 5%, Apple could still “triumph” on fundamentals, Chatterjee wrote.

Along with earnings, Apple is also likely to update investors on its capital return authorization. Analysts expect the iPhone maker to announce plans to spend as much as $90 billion on share repurchases and dividends.

WATCH: Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi expects Apple’s revenue to be down

Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi expects Apple's revenue to be down

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Qualcomm says it expects $4 billion in PC chip sales by 2029, as company gets traction beyond smartphones

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Qualcomm says it expects  billion in PC chip sales by 2029, as company gets traction beyond smartphones

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon speaks at the Computex forum in Taipei, Taiwan, June 3, 2024.

Ann Wang | Reuters

Qualcomm said on Tuesday that it expects its push into new markets to generate an additional $22 billion per year by 2029.

Of that amount, roughly $4 billion will come from PC chips, Qualcomm said at its investor day on Tuesday. The chipmaker just introduced PC processors earlier this year, when it released Snapdragon X for Windows devices.

The latest forecast marks an important milestone for Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, who took over the company in 2021 with a promise to get past a reliance on smartphones. In fiscal 2024, Qualcomm’s handset business reported $24.86 billion in sales, about 75% of its entire chip business.

Qualcomm also said on Tuesday that automotive revenues would rise about 175% by 2029 to $8 billion, of which 80% is tied to contracts that have already been secured.

We have been on this trajectory realizing that the technologies we have developed over the many years can be very relevant to a number of different industries beyond mobile,” Amon said at the investor event.

Another $4 billion in revenue will come from industrial chips and $2 billion will come from chips for headsets, a category Qualcomm calls XR. About $4 billion of the forecast is a catch-all for other chip sales, like those for wireless headphones and tablets.

Qualcomm shares are up 16% this year, trailing the Nasdaq, which has gained 26%.

Qualcomm grew rapidly over the past decade as its modems and processors became essential parts for high-end smartphones, especially those running Google Android. Qualcomm also sells modems and related parts to Apple for its iPhones.

But the company has warned investors that Apple could choose to stop buying Qualcomm parts as soon as 2027. Qualcomm said on Tuesday that its growing businesses will more than offset any losses from Apple.

A Li Auto L9 electric vehicle (EV) is seen displayed at the Qualcomm booth during the first China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing, China November 28, 2023. 

Florence Lo | Reuters

Qualcomm’s strategy under Amon has been to use the technology its developed for its handset chips, like modems, processors, and AI accelerators, in new markets, including cars, PCs, and virtual reality. The investor event was the first time in years that the company has given a forecast for those new markets. Qualcomm said its total addressable market is as large as $900 billion.

“We put a strategy in ’21, and we’re not changing our strategy,” Amon said.

Laptop and desktop chips are currently dominated by Intel, which has over 70% percent of the market, according to Mercury Research. Intel reported $29 billion in PC chip sales in its 2023.

“The competitive landscape changed between the Windows and Macs,” Amon said, referring to Apple’s move in 2020 to switch from Intel to its own processors. “We saw that as an opportunity, especially as the ecosystem did not have confidence in the existing players to actually deliver a solution.”

The forecast for XR headsets also hints at the growth potential of the VR market over the next five years. Qualcomm supplies chips to many of the top headset makers, including Meta for its Quest and Ray-Bans products.

When it comes to artificial intelligence, Qualcomm calls itself an “edge AI” company, in contrast to cloud-based AI that’s typically powered by Nvidia processors. Company officials didn’t rule out introducing data center products in an interview with CNBC.

Qualcomm suggested that its mobile chips will be able to run the kind of advanced AI that’s restricted to large server farms today, an indication that that company may benefit from the AI boom down the road as the technology becomes more efficient.

“What you can run on the cloud last year, you can run on the device this year,” Durga Malladi, Qualcomm’s senior vice president in charge of planning, said at the event.

WATCH: Qualcomm shares spike on earnings beat

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Bitcoin ETF options begin trading, ushering in a new way for investors to hedge their bitcoin exposure

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Bitcoin ETF options begin trading, ushering in a new way for investors to hedge their bitcoin exposure

Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Options on BlackRock’s popular iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) began trading on the Nasdaq Tuesday, ushering in a new way to trade and speculate on the price of bitcoin.

IBIT traded 73,000 options contracts in the first 60 mins of trading Tuesday, Nasdaq told CNBC, placing the fund in the top 20 of the most active nonindex options.

Options trading allows investors to play bitcoin’s notorious volatility by letting them buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price based on whether they anticipate the price will rise or fall in a given period.

“Bitcoin has a lively derivatives market, but in the U.S. it is still tiny compared to other asset classes, and is largely limited to institutional players,” said Noelle Acheson, economist and author of the “Crypto is Macro Now” newsletter. “A deeper onshore derivatives market will enhance the growing market sophistication. This will reinforce investor confidence in the asset, bringing in new cohorts while enabling a greater variety of investment and trading strategies … [That] should, all else being equal, dampen both volatility and downside.”

The market for options contracts on major ETFs can be extremely active, and are widely used by more sophisticated traders. For example, over the past five business days, Interactive Brokers clients have more options orders on the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) and the SDPR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) than for the funds themselves, according to data from the brokerage.

The launch of the bitcoin ETF options will likely also lead to new funds that incorporate those options, said Todd Sohn, ETF strategist at Strategas.

“Grayscale already did a filing for a covered call [fund], and I’m sure BlackRock will come out with it too. And then we’re going to get buffers, and then we’re going to get whatever other trend-following-type strategy that folks think of. I think the ecosystem’s really going to start to fly here,” Sohn said.

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Intuit, H&R Block shares fall after report that Trump government efficiency team is considering tax-filing app

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Intuit, H&R Block shares fall after report that Trump government efficiency team is considering tax-filing app

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The stock prices for H&R Block and Intuit fell after a report Tuesday said Trump’s government efficiency team is considering creating a free tax-filing app.

Intuit, which makes the TurboTax tax-filing software, was down 5%, putting it on pace for its worst day since Aug. 23, when the company’s stock price fell nearly 7%. H&R Block was down 8% and on pace for its worst day since 2020.

President-elect Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has held “highly preliminary” discussions about creating the free tax-filing app, The Washington Post reported. The so-called DOGE will not be an official government department but an outside advisory commission. It will be led by billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and aims to slash government spending.

A DOGE tax-filing app would be a competitor of both H&R Block and TurboTax.

Intuit spokeswoman Tania Mercado didn’t directly address the prospect of a government tax-filing app, but told CNBC in a statement that, “For decades, Intuit has publicly called for simplifying the U.S. tax code so individuals, families, and small businesses can better understand their finances.”

George Agurkis, H&R Block’s director of government relations, said in an email that the company looks forward “to engaging with the new Administration and the Department of Government Efficiency on their ideas related to sound and efficient tax administration.”

It’s unclear where a new DOGE tax app would bridge with newer policies the Biden administration already implemented. Under the Biden administration, the IRS in March rolled out a pilot Direct File program in 12 states, allowing qualified taxpayers to file directly through a government portal. The IRS also offers free filing services through its Free File program for taxpayers who make an adjusted gross income of $79,000 or less. 

While both Intuit and H&R Block have free filing options, neither have had stellar records when it comes to transparently offering those services. 

The Federal Trade Commission in February filed an administrative complaint against H&R Block for deceptively marketing free filing products and wrongfully deleting users’ in-progress tax data. Intuit, meanwhile, agreed to pay $141 million in restitution “for deceiving millions of low-income Americans into paying for tax services that should have been free,” according to the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James.

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