Episode summary
Apple Growth Decelerates, China Sales Miss | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec · Guests: Anurag Rana, Mark Gurman, Seth Fiegerman, Ryan Gould
Summary
Apple reported a September-quarter beat on revenue and EPS, but China remained weak and services growth showed signs of slowing. The host and a guest argued that the stock’s recent run had already priced in a lot of good news, even as strong iPhone 18 Pro demand and the new iPhone Duo helped offset memory-cost pressure and a tougher China comparison. They also said the most important part of the call would be guidance, especially around gross margins and how much pent-up Duo demand can be sustained into the December quarter.
The conversation framed Apple’s current problem as a mix of mature-product math and changing revenue mix: services cannot keep compounding at prior rates, and some revenue is under pressure from regulatory limits and from AI shifting search behavior. Mark Gurman said the company has a strong product pipeline, but that John Ternus’s first earnings call would be more revealing for cost discipline and execution than for any immediate strategic reset.
The episode also covered Anthropic’s updated filing, which showed about 12-fold year-over-year revenue growth but also a very large step-up in data-center spending commitments. Finally, Ryan Gould discussed Marvell’s agreed purchase of Lumentum, saying the all-stock structure shifts risk to the target and leaves investors questioning whether the market is already too skeptical of AI spending and deal making.
Key takeaways
- The host said Apple beat on headline revenue and EPS, but Greater China revenue missed and services growth was slowing.
- Anurag Rana said gross margins and supply chain execution are the key questions for Apple’s next few quarters.
- Mark Gurman argued that Apple’s recent stock run has priced in much of the near-term upside, making guidance the main catalyst.
- Seth Fiegerman said Anthropic is still growing fast, but its spending commitments show there is “no end in sight to the spend here.”
- Ryan Gould said Marvell’s all-stock deal for Lumentum transfers deal risk to the target and looks vulnerable in a weak AI trade.
Notable quotes
“fourth quarter revenue 114.48 billion. That is a beat, folks”
“China sales though fell short of analyst estimates. iPhone revenue climbed 17% to 57.6 billion”
“I think the biggest thing for us is what kind of guidance do they give going forward”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily, reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping today's complex economy. Plus, global business, finance, and tech news as it happens. the Bloomberg Business Week daily podcast with Carol Masser and Tim Stenac.
Apple just a little bit lower uh there. Um and we're going to be of course breaking their earnings down in just about 7 minutes. So we'll have full analysis and that includes with our next guest. He's really a member of the family.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean you know we talk about the instant insight analysis that we get from our Bloomberg team and he is certainly crucial for it.
Ron Ragana is Bloommer Intelligence senior tech analyst. He joins us from Chicago. Okay, we're going to talk to you about Apple in a few minutes.
I mean, we still got 6 minutes until these earnings cross. But Carol, there's some other stuff on our radar that we want to talk about, including the correction that NASDAQ 100 is officially in.
Third one this year. — Yeah, third one. — Third three is what do they say? — Third time's a charm. — Third time's a charm. Yeah.
Anorog, is it third times a charm? I mean, I like to see markets go up, pull back, you know, get some of the excess out, but you are the expert here. And when you see an index um three times hitting a official 10% correction, I don't know, is that a healthy market?
Is that a market that's a little bit troubled? So one one of the things we would talk about is there is certainly a lot more um you could say ups and downs right in this time than the last few years.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- apple earnings
- china sales
- ai revenue growth
- anthropic capex
- tech m&a
Companies and tickers mentioned
- AAPL
- MRVL
- LITE
- Apple
- Anthropic
- Marvell
- Lumentum
Watch the episode
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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