Apple stock slid 1.9 percent in pre-market trading today, after President Donald Trump laid out plans for new tariffs to be placed on the iPhone.
Overall, AAPL is trading down 20 percent this month. This latest blow comes after six weeks of declines for Apple, which became the first publicly traded U.S. company to pass a $1 trillion valuation earlier this year.
Trump talked about adding 10 percent tariffs on imported iPhones, among other products, earlier this week. This is despite previous reports suggesting that Apple would be spared from the burgeoning trade war between China and the United States.
At time of writing, AAPL is currently trading at $174.62. That’s down from the $229.28 it hit in early October.
Concerns about Apple’s business in China have long been a concern for investors. Even before Trump’s election, and the current talk of a trade war, activist investor Carl Icahn quit investing in Apple for this reason. Despite making over $3.4 billion investing in AAPL, Icahn said, “I got out because I’m worried about China.”
China’s not the only reason
China isn’t the only reason Apple stock is suffering, however. In a note to clients today, RBC Capital Markets analyst Amit Daryanani blamed the decline on “sustained datapoints around soft iPhone demand from supply-chain and others.” The firm lowered its price target on Apple to $235 a share.
Daryanani continued: “While AAPL stock has substantially corrected (down 21% since the company reported vs. S&P500 down 2%), we think investors will wait for datapoints/noise level to stabilize before getting more positive on the name.”
How long will it be before Apple is able to turn around this losing streak? We’ll have to wait and see, but it’s hard to argue that the company hasn’t experienced a run of bad luck lately.
Source: CNBC
