Tim Cook’s attempt to reassure Apple investors about the company’s performance in China amid continued stock market turbulence helped to stem another day of losses for technology companies on Wall Street.
After the company’s stock started the week 10 per cent lower following a “Black Monday” for Chinese equities, Mr Cook made a rare intervention by saying that consumer demand for its hardware and software in Apple’s most important growth market remained “strong”. His comments helped claw back $67 billion in market capitalisation lost earlier in the day for the world’s most valuable company.
‘Strong growth’
“I get updates on our performance in China every day, including this morning, and I can tell you that we have continued to experience strong growth for our business in China through July and August,” Apple’s chief executive told CNBC.
“Growth in iPhone activations has actually accelerated over the past few weeks, and we have had the best performance of the year for the App Store in China during the last two weeks,” Mr Cook added, in what he admitted was an unusual response to a share-price movement outside of its quarterly earnings reports.
Apple confirmed the remarks, which helped to nudge the company’s share price back above $106 and into positive territory for the day by midday in New York.
The stock opened below $100 for the first time since October.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015
