Despite the number of Chinese coronavirus cases now outstripping the SARS epidemic of the early noughties, and the Hang Seng entering the Lunar New Year down 3%, the European indices pushed ahead with their rebound on Wednesday.
It helped that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) smashed it out of the park overnight. The demand for iPhone 11s drove Q1 sales up 8% year-on-year to £91.8 billion, topping analysts’ estimates by around $3 billion. Net profits, meanwhile, surged 11% to $22.2 billion. There wasn’t much detail on the recently launched Apple TV+, however, with a 17% rise in services one of the few arguable disappointments.
But even that blockbuster update wasn’t free of the coronavirus. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has a huge, often performance-dictating, exposure to China, causing Tim Cook to reassure investors it was ‘closely monitoring’ the situation in the country. After all, reduced store hours and a populace on lockdown could come to impact the tech giant’s second quarter.
Nevertheless, the positivity generated by the statement added to Europe’s attempts to squeeze higher. The FTSE recrossed 7500 following a 0.4% increase, ignoring sterling’s milquetoast attempts at its own rebound. The DAX and CAC were slightly more cautious, adding 0.2%-0.3% apiece. As for the Dow Jones, the futures are currently pointing to a 100 point bump, one that would put the index back above 28800.
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