Sluggish iPhone sales slash £30 billion off Apple’s value

The high price of Apple products have previously served the company well, keeping profits increasing despite the slowing rate of sales. However, with the iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max and iPhone XR struggling in the market, Wall Street investors aren’t convinced.

On Monday, Apple’s shares sank 5%, closing at $194 (£150). This is just the latest in a slide in share prices, which are now 15% lower than their peak in October. This drop hit Apple’s market value by slicing off more than £31bn overnight, a significant amount for a company whose market value has been teetering around the $1tn mark for a while now.

The tech company’s value fell 2.3% on the Dow Jones index, 2% on the S&P 500 Index, and 2.75% on the Nasdaq exchange. However, Apple wasn’t the only company to see losses  — share prices in many other tech companies took a hit on Monday. Amazon’s shares fell by 4%, Alphabet’s by 2.5% and Facebook’s by 2.3%, all despite the buoyant consumer buying periods of Black Friday and Christmas sales drawing near.<

Apple’s share price slump follows news that two of Apple’s suppliers, Japan Display and Lumentum, both downgraded their profit expectations for the year, with the former citing “volatile customer demand”.

READ NEXT: Despite Android overshadowing iOS massively, Apple is still the lead phone manufacturer

In Apple’s last earnings report on 2 November, the company dropped the bombshell that it would no longer report device sales. In the earnings report it became clear that, while profits were increasing, sales for certain devices were remaining stagnant or dropping. In addition, investors had expected the company to report more profit than they actually did. This caused investors to question the long-term viability of Apple’s high-price business strategy.

While Apple is seeing some of its highest profits in history, Wall Street confidence can make or break a company. The lack of faith many investors have in Apple could foreshadow greater losses to come if it can’t turn its sales around soon.