Apple’s (APPL:NASDAQ) revenue declined for the third consecutive quarter—its most prolonged sales slump since 2016. The Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant posted sales of $81.8 billion for the quarter ended in July, down 1.4% from the prior year. Net income was up 2.3% annually at $19.9 billion.
The company’s all-important iPhone sales fell 2.4% to $39.7 billion, missing analysts expectations of $40.2 billion in iPhone revenue. The iPhone currently accounts for roughly half of Apple’s overall sales.
It’s been about seven years since Apple has seen three straight quarters of falling revenue, when it ended its fiscal 2016 with sales down 7.7% annually, mostly due to declining iPhone sales. The same phenomenon is behind Apple’s slump in 2023, although investors and analysts generally remain optimistic that the company will find a way to maintain and grow its dominant position in consumers’ lives.
Amazon doubles earnings
Amazon (AMZN:NASDAQ) posted revenue growth of 11% from a year earlier, compared with the 9% Wall Street was anticipating. Revenue also beat projections across all the company’s segments, including the vital cloud computing business known as AWS.
But an even bigger surprise was Amazon’s operating income of $7.7 billion, which more than doubled from the same period last year and beat analysts’ targets by 58%.
The Seattle-based company also reported a continued deceleration in its profit-driving cloud-computing business, which expanded at its slowest pace on record as business customers remain cautious in their spending.
Yellow shuts down, intends to file for bankruptcy
Yellow (YELL:NASDAQ) shares surged 149% Monday, a day after the 99-year old U.S. trucking giant said it was shutting down. The failure of the 99-year-old company is the ripple effect of a string of mergers that left it saddled with debt and stalled standoffs with the Teamsters union
Yellow known for its cut-rate prices intends to file for bankruptcy, , threatens nearly 30,000 jobs, including around 22,000 Teamsters members. This would be the biggest collapse in terms of revenue and jobs in the U.S. trucking industry.
The company has already dropped hundreds of its nonunion employees after the company stopped taking in new shipments from customers.
AMD beats estimates, but investors not convinced
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD:NASDAQ) posted quarterly sales and earnings that slightly beat estimates, but the company faces a sluggish market for personal computers and reduced spending on more traditional data-center components.
The chip maker has been one of the hottest semiconductor stocks this year as AI excitement bolstered the sector. AMD Chief Executive Lisa Su said its highly-anticipated MI300 artificial-intelligence chips are on track to launch during the fourth quarter.
AMD’s results followed disappointing results last month from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC:NASDAQ) and Texas Instruments (TXN:NASDAQ).
CVS sees sales boost
CVS Health (CVS:NYSE) posted a 10.3% increase in its second-quarter sales, driven by growth in its healthcare benefits segment.
Earlier this year, the retail pharmacy giant acquired Oak Street Health, which operates primary-care clinics for patients enrolled in Medicare, for $10.6 billion. The company also completed its roughly $8 billion acquisition of home-healthcare company Signify Health in March.
Meanwhile, CVS said it is cutting about 5,000 jobs—primarily corporate positions—to help reduce costs as the company focuses on healthcare services.
Demand for construction products boosts Caterpillar’s sales
Caterpillar (CAT:NYSE) reported surging quarterly sales, as demand for its construction products rose despite higher prices. The construction machinery maker has faced higher costs of materials and raised prices, but those increases haven’t caused customers to pull back.
The company expects demand for its yellow equipment to remain strong amid elevated U.S. spending on infrastructure, in part brought by the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021.