FirstFT: Apple’s iPhone sales rebound but total revenue continues decline

Gross sales of Apple’s iPhone bounced again from provide chain disruptions within the vacation interval, rising 2 per cent within the quarter to $51.3bn, forward of estimates at $48.9bn.

The uptick got here as a reduction to traders questioning what demand would appear like following an outbreak of Covid-19 on the Foxconn manufacturing facility referred to as “iPhone Metropolis” that had derailed manufacturing in November.

Chief govt Tim Prepare dinner mentioned Apple had made it by means of “this parade of horribles . . . between the pandemic and the chip shortages and macroeconomic components”. He added: “The provision chain has been extremely resilient and we be ok with what we’re and what our plans are.”

However whole income nonetheless fell 2.5 per cent yr on yr to $94.8bn within the three months to the tip of March, the second quarter of decline in a row, as a consequence of what the corporate described as a “more durable” financial atmosphere and foreign money headwinds.

Right here’s what else is going on at the moment and over the weekend:

Thanks for studying FirstFT. In case you’re on the lookout for a deeper evaluation of the UK polls as we anticipate outcomes to come back in, I like to recommend the latest version of the Inside Politics e-newsletter by Stephen Bush, who explains the nationwide points behind the native elections.

5 extra prime tales

1. US regional banks suffered extreme share worth declines yesterday amid recent requires an intervention from Washington. Activist investor Nelson Peltz instructed the Monetary Instances that the deposit insurance coverage restrict ought to be elevated. Right here’s the newest on the US banking turmoil.

2. A flood of gilt gross sales is driving up the UK authorities’s borrowing prices, traders say, as markets are requested to soak up file volumes of bonds with out the Financial institution of England stepping in to vacuum up provide. Learn the complete story.

3. Invoice Clinton realised it was “only a matter of time” earlier than Vladimir Putin would invade Ukraine, the previous US president mentioned, recalling remarks made by the Russian chief in 2011 on an settlement to respect Ukraine’s territory made below Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin. Right here’s what Clinton remembered from his chilling dialog with Putin.

4. Shares of the UK’s largest housebuilders have rallied unexpectedly by greater than 20 per cent on common since January, as traders more and more guess Britain will keep away from an enormous fall in home costs. Learn extra from the latest outcomes from builders.

5. Hundreds of thousands of Britons are overpaying on cell phone contracts as a result of operators are unfairly imposing larger tariffs on “bundle” bundle prospects, in line with new knowledge launched at the moment by Virgin Media O2, which known as on its opponents to cease “swindling” prospects.

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The Massive Learn

Final yr, ByteDance staff by means of TikTok accessed journalists’ private data, together with their bodily places, as a part of an try to trace down the writers’ sources after a sequence of damaging tales in regards to the firm. One of many victims was FT expertise correspondent Cristina Criddle. That is her story.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

Progressives are profitable the immigration debate in western international locations, with some theorising that the success of anti-immigration populism shocked beforehand complacent moderates into vocalising assist for range, writes chief knowledge reporter John Burn-Murdoch.

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Take a break from the information

Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner reinvented in style British cinema with hits from 4 Weddings to Love Truly. The business has modified remarkably since then. However their MO is far because it was 30 years in the past. “Each film nonetheless basically comes all the way down to this: cowl your nuts and leap,” Bevan mentioned.

Further contributions by Gordon Smith and Emily Goldberg