Categories: Business & Economy

More people want the new iPhone – and Apple shares

Apple CEO Tim Cook holds new iPhones during a special Apple event at Apple headquarters on September 9, 2025 in Cupertino, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Reviewers may mock the iPhone 17 Pro’s fluorescent orange finish, but Apple The “Cosmic Orange” smartphone appears to be dazzling where it counts: in terms of sales and shares.

The latest iPhone 17 series, which includes the base iPhone 17 and its overachieving Pro and skinny Air siblings – which come in colors other than orange, to be clear – has outperformed its predecessor in the US and China, according to Counterpoint Research. In China, the iPhone Air was sold out within minutes of going on sale, according to the South China Morning Post.

Investors have noticed. Apple shares jumped nearly 4% on the news and closed at a record high. That has to be good news for CEO Tim Cook and investors for a stock that’s lagging its Magnificent 7 peers. That brings Apple’s year-to-date gains to about 5%, compared to from Nvidia 36% and 25% for Meta.

Another member of Mag 7, however, had an eventful Monday. from Amazon The cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, suffered an outage that resulted in the shutdown of sites such as Reddit And Snapchatplunging millions of people, including yours truly, into existential crises. Nonetheless, Amazon shares managed to climb about 1.6%.

US markets also rose more generally, with the main indices finishing in the green on Monday. This week, investors will be keeping an eye on developments in U.S. trade with China as well as the results of companies such as Netflix, Tesla And Intel — a mix that could make the coming days almost as colorful as Apple’s latest phone.

What you need to know today

And finally…

Liquid-cooled servers at a facility on the Global Switch Docklands data center campus in London, UK, Monday June 16, 2025.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

AI should be a boon for emerging markets, but some investors are not convinced

“AI is going to change everything for emerging markets,” said Anton Osika, CEO and co-founder of Swedish startup Lovable, which allows others to build apps and websites via prompts, eliminating the need for technical knowledge.

However, AI does not solve the structural challenges facing emerging markets. That means many sticking points still exist, such as the availability of local funding and trust that startups will guarantee revenue, according to Emmet King, managing partner and co-founder of J12 Ventures, an investment firm.

-Tasmin Lockwood