$AAPL Gets a New Boss and $AMZN Bets $5B on AI — Here's What Retail Is Actually Watching
With oil chaos and a Fed chair on the hot seat, earnings season is flying into some serious headwinds
Ticker Ratings
Let's start with the one everyone's talking about: $AAPL announced Tim Cook steps down September 1st, handing the keys to hardware chief John Ternus. Shares dipped ~0.8% after hours — a remarkably calm reaction for a CEO transition at the world's most valuable company. CNBC's Gene Munster, who literally just bought more Apple stock, says the market is sleeping on Apple's AI pivot moment. Cook leaves behind a 1,900% return since 2011. No pressure, Jeff.
Meanwhile, $AMZN surged ~2.5% after hours on a $5 billion Anthropic investment — because apparently 'go big or go home' is just Tuesday in Seattle. With the antitrust trial against Amazon scheduled for January over alleged price-fixing with brands like Levi's, earnings calls are about to get awkward.
The macro backdrop isn't doing any of this any favors: oil at $95/barrel, national gas averaging $4.04/gallon, and a Fed chair nominee whose $250M in opaque holdings is already giving Senate confirmation hearings main character energy. Earnings beats might not matter much if nobody can afford to drive to work.