Apple reports quarterly earnings amid Trump trade policy chaos | Apple

Investors are preparing to report their second quarter financial results on Thursday. The tech giant has been working to calm neuroanalysts after Donald Trump imposed tariffs on countries around the world that could complicate the supply chain of consumer electronics. Apple's stock has fallen 16% since the beginning of the year.

Its earnings report is expected, and the company's stock rose slightly on Wednesday. Analysts predicted that Apple's positive quarter was positive, with average revenue estimates of $94.56 billion, up 4.2% from last year and earnings per share of $1.62, up 5.8%. The company is worth $320 million, beating Wall Street's expectations for the first four quarters.

iPhone Maker relies heavily on mobile phones, tablets and laptops from China's manufacturing industry. A few days after Trump posed a high tariff on China, it was as high as 245%, and the president said he would provide exceptions to consumer electronics.

According to the Washington Post, Apple's CEO Tim Cook spoke with senior White House officials during this time. It was after these conversations that Trump announced his exception to consumer electronics. In the days after the announcement, Apple's stock rose 7%.

However, it is not yet clear how long the probation will last. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called the exemption "temporary", and even Trump later said on social media that there were no "exceptions".

The president repeatedly said he wanted to see more manufacturing in the United States. In February, he met with Cook to discuss investment in U.S. manufacturing. "He's going to start building," Trump said after the meeting. "The numbers are big - you have to talk to him. I think they'll announce it at some point."

JP Morgan estimates that if Apple transfers production to the U.S., it said in a note this week that it could "a 30% increase in price in the near future, assuming China's tax rate is 20%. JP Morgan and other analysts said Apple may continue to move more of its manufacturing to India, which faces only 10% tariffs.

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Apple earlier this month took jets from India to the U.S. to roughly $20 billion in iPhones to boost inventory in an effort to raise prices amid Trump’s tariffs and feared consumer panic. This is because investors expressed concerns about reducing iPhone sales in the world's largest smartphone market. In its last earnings in January, Apple reported that iPhone sales fell 11.1% in China in the first quarter, missing Wall Street's expectations for iPhone revenue.

But in the near term, analysts say tariff confusion could benefit Apple's panic buying of its products because of fears that prices will rise. In the long run, it remains to be seen how much more costly the consumer will shift. "If (the consumer) absorbs these price increases without withdrawing the price of Apple products as demand." ”