Apple shares rose nearly 5% on Friday, hitting a nine-month high and on track for their biggest one-day gain since November after the iPhone maker’s quarterly results cheered investors worried about a potential recession
The rebound in Apple shares fueled optimism on Wall Street, helping lift the S&P 500 and Nasdaq more than 1.5% after CEO Tim Cook’s results on Thursday night underscored the resilience of Apple. corporate earnings in a quarterly reporting season that so far has been less bad than expected.
“Apple calmed the market because of its consistency in execution. Tim Cook has a firm hand on the tiller,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“Investors in uncertain times want certainty, and Apple, as well as Microsoft, are as close to certainty as possible,” Dollarhide added.
The world’s most valuable company reported lower revenue and profit for the quarter ended April 1, but still beat analysts’ expectations. With Apple’s results helped by emerging markets such as India, executives said gross profit margins for the current quarter would be better than expected.