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Apple shares rose 2% in premarket trading on Friday, after the iPhone maker’s quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations, indicating resilience in the face of global trade tensions and intensifying artificial intelligence rivalry. Driven by a sharp rebound in its flagship phone sales, Apple posted its fastest revenue growth since 2021 and forecast “mid to high single digit” growth for the current quarter, well above analysts’ 3.27% estimate. “Although there are specific drivers like China subsidies that can be attributed for some of the exceptional strength, the acceleration in revenue growth is equally surprising, especially in a quarter when consumers typically hold off purchases ahead of the next iPhone launch in September,” J.P.Morgan analysts said. Apple has been rebalancing its manufacturing footprint, sourcing iPhones from India and other products such as Macs and Apple Watches from Vietnam, while much of its product line still benefits from tariff exemptions. CEO Tim Cook warned that tariffs would raise costs by $1.1 billion in the current quarter after the company said it took an $800 million hit from tariffs in the third quarter. The company also faces stiff competition from hardware rivals such as Samsung Electronics in the premium smartphone space and software giant Alphabet, which is rapidly embedding AI into Android and ramping up AI spending with growing returns. Among the ‘Magnificent Seven’ stocks, Apple has lagged behind this year, with its stock down 17%, as it grapples with staying competitive in the fast-evolving AI space.Apple has delayed the release of its AI-enhanced virtual assistant Siri, and was slow to launch Apple Intelligence, but Cook said the company is making headway and scaling up its AI spending to catch up with Big Tech rivals.”Brand loyalty gives Apple time to get the AI transition right, but it needs to start delivering”, said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown. Joel Jose and Alun John, Reuters
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E-Commerce
U.S. President Donald Trump slapped steep tariffs on exports from dozens of trading partners including Canada, Brazil, India and Taiwan, pressing ahead with his plans to reorder the global economy ahead of a Friday trade deal deadline. Trump set rates including a 35% duty on many goods from Canada, 50% for Brazil, 25% for India, 20% for Taiwan and 39% for Switzerland, according to a presidential executive order. The order listed higher import duty rates of 10% to 41% starting in seven days for 69 trading partners as the 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) deadline approached. Some of them had reached tariff-reducing deals; others had no opportunity to negotiate with his administration. Trump included an exception for some goods shipped within the coming week. Goods from all other countries not listed would be subject to a 10% U.S. import tax. Trump had previously said that rate might be higher. The administration also teased that more trade deals were in the pipeline as it seeks to close trade deficits and boost domestic factories. Facing a Friday deadline of his making, the Republican president has tapped emergency powers, pressured foreign leaders, and pressed ahead with trade policies that sparked a market sell-off when they were first announced in April. This time, markets had a more muted reaction. Stocks and equity futures fell modestly in Friday morning trading in Asia. Trump’s order said that some trading partners, “despite having engaged in negotiations, have offered terms that, in my judgment, do not sufficiently address imbalances in our trading relationship or have failed to align sufficiently with the United States on economic and national-security matters.” Other details are still to come, including on the “rules of origin” that will determine what products might face even higher tariffs. Trump also said “we have made a few deals today that are excellent deals for the country,” and a U.S. official later told reporters that they were still to be announced. CANADA, MEXICO Trump issued a separate order for Canada that raises the rate on Canadian goods subject to fentanyl-related tariffs to 35%, from 25% previously, saying Canada had “failed to cooperate” in curbing illicit narcotics flows into the U.S. The higher tariffs on Canadian goods contrasted sharply with Trump’s decision to grant Mexico a 90-day reprieve from higher tariffs of 30% on many goods to provide more time to negotiate a broader trade pact. Trump complained to reporters earlier that Canada had “been very poorly led.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was disappointed by Trump’s decision, and vowed to take action to protect Canadian jobs and diversify the country’s export markets. “While we will continue to negotiate with the United States on our trading relationship, the Canadian government is laser focused on what we can control: building Canada strong,” he said in a post on X. The extension for Mexico avoids a 30% tariff on most Mexican non-automotive and non-metal goods compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade and came after a Thursday morning call between Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. “We avoided the tariff increase announced for tomorrow,” Sheinbaum wrote on X, adding that the Trump call was “very good.” About 85% of U.S. imports from Mexico comply with the rules of origin outlined in the USMCA, shielding them from 25% tariffs related to fentanyl, according to Mexico’s economy ministry. Trump said the U.S. would continue to levy a 50% tariff on Mexican steel, aluminum and copper and a 25% tariff on Mexican autos and on non-USMCA-compliant goods subject to tariffs related to the U.S. fentanyl crisis. “Additionally, Mexico has agreed to immediately terminate its Non Tariff Trade Barriers, of which there were many,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, without providing details. INDIA DISCORD Goods from India appeared to be headed for a 25% tariff after talks bogged down over access to India’s agriculture sector, drawing a higher-rate threat from Trump that also included an unspecified penalty for India’s purchases of Russian oil. Although negotiations with India were continuing, New Delhi vowed to protect the country’s labor-intensive farm sector, and the threat of higher rates from Trump triggered outrage from the opposition party and a slump in the rupee. Trump’s rollout of higher import taxes on Friday comes amid more evidence they have begun driving up consumer goods prices. Commerce Department data released Thursday showed prices for home furnishings and durable household equipment jumped 1.3% in June, the biggest gain since March 2022. Recreational goods and vehicles prices shot up 0.9%, the most since February 2024. Prices for clothing and footwear rose 0.4%. TOUGH QUESTIONS FROM JUDGES Trump hit Brazil’s exports on Wednesday with a steep 50% tariff as he escalated his fight with Latin America’s largest economy over its prosecution of his friend and former President Jair Bolsonaro, but softened the blow by excluding sectors such as aircraft, energy and orange juice from heavier levies. The run-up to Trump’s tariff deadline was unfolding as federal appeals court judges sharply questioned Trump’s use of a sweeping emergency powers law to justify his sweeping tariffs of up to 50% on nearly all trading partners. Trump invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare an emergency over the growing U.S. trade deficit and impose his “reciprocal” tariffs and a separate fentanyl emergency. The Court of International Trade ruled in May that the actions exceeded his executive authority, and questions from judges during oral arguments before the U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit in Washington indicated further skepticism. Meanwhile, China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with Trump’s administration, after Beijing and Washington reached preliminary deals in May and June to end escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a cut-off of rare earth minerals. A U.S. official told reporters that they are making progress toward a deal. Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, and Aftab Ahmed David Lawder, Trevor Hunnicutt and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez, Reuters
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E-Commerce
The Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee is dubbed the “Last Great Colosseumand for good reason. Its a massive homage to spectacle, with a seating capacity of around 150,000 encircling a half-mile track thats home to various NASCAR races throughout the year. Now, it’s being transformed for another purpose: It will serve as the field for the biggest regular-season baseball game of all time. On August 2, Bristol is hosting the new Speedway Classic, which will see the Cincinnati Reds face off against the Atlanta Braves in the biggest Major League Baseball (MLB) game ever played in Tennessee. So far, more than 85,000 tickets have been solda figure thats higher than the capacity of both teams stadiums put together, and a figure that breaks the record for the biggest regular-season game, set in 1954 when Cleveland hosted the Yankees. [Rendering: MLB] In Bristol there will be headlining music acts, cameras mounted on custom RC car rigs and, nestled within that gray concrete racetrack, the striking verdant green of a baseball field. To see a ballpark sitting in the middle of a racetrack is not something that you see every day, says Jeremiah Yolkut, SVP of global events for MLB. Heres how it got there. [Photo: Randy Sartin/MLB Photos via Getty Images] THE COLOSSUS PROBLEM MLB has been doing special-event games for the past nine years, with highlights including the Negro leagues tribute last year in Birmingham, Alabama and the Field of Dreams games in Iowa. Yolkut says MLB had pondered doing a game at a speedway, but most are simply too long and wide to be a fitting frame for a regulation-sized field. But then in September 2021, they went to check out Bristol, and were blown away by the trackand how its dimensions might uniquely cradle a baseball field. That kicked off six to nine months of viability studies. The most logical place to put a field would be at the center of the venuebut there was one critical problem: Bristol is home to the 127-ton Colossus, the worlds largest center-hung outdoor scoreboard. It would cut right through center field, posing a massive logistical issue in the field of play. [Photo: Earl Neikirk/Neikirk Image] Then there was the challenge of finding the optimal field positioning to avoid the sun being in players eyes; the issue of permanent structures on-site that could not be removed; the high banks of the tracks turns, and, well, that sacrosanct track itself. (We could not repave Bristol Motor Speedway to level the entire space, Yolkut notes.) They eventually jigsawed everything together and discovered an orientation within the infield of the track that satisfied all the requirements. They put the Colossus into foul territoryand then they got to work. [Photo: Earl Neikirk/Neikirk Image] DIRT RECIPES AND TIM MCGRAW Work started in May with a crew of around 150, who removed 1,000 feet of pit walls, demolished half of a building, removed a gas pump station, and other foundational tasks. Next, hundreds more workers took on the construction phase. Over the years, MLB has developed relationships with various specialty partners on bringing baseball to unconventional spaces, such as the global design firm Populous and the commercial landscaper BrightView. [Photo: Earl Neikirk/Neikirk Image] The team had to first raise and level the ground with 17,500 tons of rock from Tennessee; they then brought in 340 tons of clay from Pennsylvania, which utilizes the same dirt recipe as 25 other professional baseball stadium (since the clay must be kept moist, Yolkut says they also installed an irrigation system). Next came the turf124,000 square feet of Diamond Series Astroturf, the same kind that is used on the Toronto Blue Jays home field. And then all the rest: 450 wall pads for the perimeter; two 60-foot foul poles; 80,000 square feet of backstop netting; 275 extra light fixtures; 2,400 extra infield seats; and two full bullpens and dugouts. [Photo: Earl Neikirk/Neikirk Image] Yolkut adds that the team clubhouses had to be on par with what players are used to at home. To that end, each facility includes showers, bathrooms, a meal room, a training room, a video room, stretching area, weight room, and so on. And thats just half of Bristol. MLB is making use of the entire venue, and the rest of it will be home to a fan experience and pregame concert with Tim McGraw, Pitbull, and Jake Owen. The event is also set to feature a pregame player parade inspired by NASCAR’s driver intros, and when Fox Sports televises the game, theyll have extra tech on hand consistent with the race themesuch as an RC car camera that will show viewers the perspective of what its like to be on the track at Bristol, and the baseball diamonds unique location within the infield. [Photo: Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos/Getty Images] The teardown When the big game ends, the field will disappear as quickly as it went upand for good reason, as NASCAR races come to the track September 11 to 13. Yolkut says the teardown is a three-week marathon that involves around 200 crew members, with the turf itself being donated to East Tennessee State University. It’s an exhaustive process, he says. In fact, a lot of the partners have separate teams that literally come in at the end of the event to do it. [Photo: Earl Neikirk/Neikirk Image] You may wonder how the Reds and Braves wound up in the biggest baseball game of all timeand Yolkut says it first came down to location. Atlanta and Cincinnati are both within a reasonable driving distance of Bristol, and beyond that, These teams have players that are fast, that are energized, that are young, and are bringing a lot of that power to the game. The ticket sales are perhaps a testament to that strategyand ultimately, Yolkut notes that itll be as much a spectacle for those fans on-site and at home as it will be for the players themselves. To see 90,000 people watching you is not something any of these players have had in their baseball time, he says. They’ve played in all kinds of venues, but I think they’re going to be mystified by just that feeling and that Last Great Colosseum feel. . . . I think that’ll be a pretty magical moment.
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E-Commerce
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