Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) ended higher 1.93% and complete the day at $149.70. The total number of shares changed hands during the day was 93,628,333 shares. After opening at $145.82, the stock hit as high as $150.01. However, it traded between $129.04 and $182.94 over the last twelve months. On Friday, U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Oil&Gas, Consumer Services and Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.10% to hit a new 1-month high, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.92%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 1.88%.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were ShiftPixy Inc (NASDAQ:PIXY) which rose 56.43% to 19.10, Exela Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:XELA) which was up 50.27% to settle at 0.28 and Ucloudlink Group Inc (NASDAQ:UCL) which gained 46.15% to close at 1.90.
The worst performers were PLx Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:PLXP) which was down 37.50% to 0.38 in late trade, Science 37 Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:SNCE) which lost 32.06% to settle at 0.85 and Airsculpt Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:AIRS) which was down 30.66% to 3.28 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2027 to 1071 and 115 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2460 rose and 1296 declined, while 219 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
Apple AirDrop
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has made changes to the way its AirDrop sharing service works, after it was used in protests in China.
AirDrop allows iPhones to communicate with each other directly, to send pictures, videos or other files without relying on the internet. It also allows people to connect iPhones to each other without knowing any contact information, since the phones can simply scan for nearby devices.
Now Apple will no longer allow users to set the feature to “everyone” forever, which allows anyone to send a message using the peer-to-peer service. Instead, iPhone users will be able to switch that setting on for 10 minutes, after which it will change back to only allowing messages from contacts.
The change arrived with a new update that applies only to iPhones that were made in China. The update is thought to be a response to the use of the feature in the country to distribute anti-government information and help co-ordinate protests.
The update arrived in the new iOS 16.1.1, which otherwise did not seem to include any other major features. The feature will only be activated on iPhones that are registered as having been purchased in China.
The share price surge led to a record market value gain of $190.9 billion for Apple. This marks the biggest one-day market-cap surge ever for the company, according to Bloomberg data. Currently, Apple has a $2.34 trillion in market capitalization.
Further, Apple is one of the big techs that came up with solid earnings results last month. Earnings per share came in at $1.29, outpacing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3 cents and increasing 4% from the year-ago earnings. Revenues increased 8% year over year to a record $90.1 billion and edged past the estimate of $88.5 billion
iPhone sales grew 10% to a record $42.6 billion. Services revenues, comprising iTunes, Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Pay and Apple Care, soared 5% year over year to a record $19.2 billion. Revenues from Wearables, Home and Accessories, which include Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod, Apple TV and Beats headphones, rose 10% to $9.7 billion. Mac sales jumped 25% to $11.5 billion, while iPad sales dropped 13% to $7.2 billion.
In addition to its use in protests, the “everyone” setting on AirDrop has led to other criticism. Users have reported receiving unsolicited inappropriate images while in public areas, for instance, which is possible because users can simply connect directly to any phone with the option checked.
