Original title: Apple evaporates 63.9 billion due to weak iPhone sales
4hw.com.cn news on April 25, according to foreign media reports, disappointing performance expectations from key iPhone suppliers have aroused people's concerns about Apple stock and may herald the end of the rise of technology stocks.
Apple's share price fell 7.1% in the three trading days to Monday (22nd local time), resulting in a loss of $63.9 billion in its market value. On Thursday morning, TSM, Apple's chip supplier, announced a weaker than expected performance forecast, which triggered a drop in Apple's share price.
TSMC is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer and Apple's most important chip partner. The company said it expects second quarter revenue of $7.8 billion to $7.9 billion, compared with Wall Street's estimate of $8.8 billion. The company attributed its forecast to 'weak demand' in the mobile phone industry.
"As we enter Apple's much anticipated second quarter of fiscal year 2018, Wall Street has fallen into & lsquo; all panic mode & gt;, as its Asian supply chain shows that iPhone shipments in June have fallen far short of expectations," GBH insights analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a report to customers. '
A senior industry analyst believes that TSMC's poor performance expectations are a precursor to the decline of the chip industry and the stock market.
Fred Hickey, editor of high tech strategy, wrote on social media: 'TSMC's warning may pose a threat to the semiconductor (SOx) industry. Sox is the leading indicator of the whole stock market, which has been rock solid (relatively strong) in the past two years. '
IPhone x sales weak, Apple's market value evaporated 63.9 billion
Not long ago, a top wall street company slashed its iPhone sales forecast. The day after TSMC issued its warning, Morgan Stanley cut its iPhone sales in the June quarter from 40.5 million units to 34 million units.
Katy Huberty, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, wrote: 'we are cautious about Apple's performance report to be released on May 1 because we believe consensus expectations for the June quarter need to be lowered. Apple's return on capital announcement may be equivalent to a & lsquo; sale News & amp; type event, especially when the expected forecast is substantially lowered. '
Another important Apple supplier also sharply lowered its forecast for the June quarter. AMS, an Australian supplier of optical sensors used on the iPhone x, said it expects sales in the second quarter to be between $220 million and $250 million, down nearly 50% from the first quarter.
Moritz Gmeiner, head of investor relations at AMS, said: 'we can't discuss specific customers, but we see a significant decline in the business of large smartphone projects, which has a huge impact on the consumer business and the company as a whole. '
Wall Street blamed poor iPhone x demand for the two suppliers' weak performance expectations. As a result, JPMorgan expects other semiconductor suppliers to report lower than expected results on June 1.
IPhone sales weak, Apple's market value evaporated 63.9 billion
In a report to customers, wireless semiconductor analyst bill Peterson said: 'TSMC's and AMS's performance forecasts for the June quarter further demonstrate Apple's slowing demand trend, with iPhone x particularly weak. In view of this, we believe that the consensus revenue / EPS forecast for the June quarter was too high, and we lowered our expectation for wireless semiconductor. '
Mizuho Securities currently estimates that demand for high-end new iPhones will fall sharply in the second half of 2018. The company said it expects iPhone production to fall 2% year-on-year in the second half of 2018, while sales of new models such as the successor to the iPhone 9 and iPhone x will fall 15% year-on-year.
Apple didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.