Apple Tumbles 6% on Price Hikes; Asia Stocks Fall
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- Apple slid 6.1% overnight, erasing about $250 billion in market value, after announcing price hikes on iPads and MacBooks to counter surging memory and storage chip costs
- Microsoft is raising Xbox console prices by up to $150 worldwide, reflecting the same chip cost pressures that hit Apple
- Micron shares surged nearly 16% to a record high after a blowout earnings report; deVere Group CEO Nigel Green contrasted the two: "Micron tells us where the profits are. Apple tells us where the inflation is"
- Japan's Nikkei dropped 3% and South Korea's KOSPI fell 3.5%, pulling the MSCI Asia-Pacific ex-Japan index down 1.7% for a 3.4% weekly loss, though all three remain sharply higher for the quarter (KOSPI up 70%, Nikkei up 38%)
- The yen traded at 161.82 per dollar, hovering near its weakest level in 40 years, with traders trimming bets on a September Fed rate hike after U.S. PCE inflation met forecasts
- Brent crude slipped 0.5% to $74.89 a barrel after bouncing 2% from four-month lows on a reported attack on a ship exiting the Strait of Hormuz, where Tehran has warned vessels against unapproved routes
Why it matters: Apple's price hike signals AI-driven memory demand is now translating into consumer electronics inflation, not just supplier profits—with $250 billion erased from Apple's market cap. Asian chip-exposed markets (Nikkei, KOSPI) still closed the quarter up 38-70% but now face a two-edged supply squeeze: chipmakers profit while device makers pass costs through.
