Apple has released its earnings report—did all metrics beat expectations or decline? First, let’s look at the numbers. Apple reported its fiscal fourth quarter of 2026, which covers the period ending September 26—not the calendar year’s fourth quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $114.48 billion, up 12% year-over-year; net profit was $30.71 billion, up approximately 12%; diluted EPS came in at $2.10, up 14% year-over-year. Wall Street had expected revenue of around $113.4 billion and EPS of approximately $1.99—Apple exceeded both estimates. Full-year revenue reached $478.8 billion, up 15% year-over-year; net profit totaled $132.2 billion. On the surface, this earnings report looks outstanding. But experienced investors don’t just look at total revenue. First, the iPhone remains Apple’s largest cash cow. iPhone revenue this quarter was $57.58 billion, up approximately 17.5%. Mac revenue was $10.79 billion, up 23.7%. Services revenue hit $31.57 billion, up 9.8%, setting another record. However, iPad revenue was $6.23 billion, down 10.4% year-over-year; Wearables, Home, and Accessories revenue was $8.3 billion, down 7.9%. This reveals a key point: Apple’s growth isn’t driven uniformly across all segments—it’s primarily fueled by the iPhone, Mac, and Services. Especially Services, which carries a gross margin of around 76%. Hardware brings users into the ecosystem; Services generate ongoing profits. This is truly where Apple’s strength lies. Second, the biggest hidden risk in this report is rising memory prices. Apple’s gross margin this quarter was 47.9%—seemingly strong. But one easily overlooked detail: tariff refunds contributed approximately 1 percentage point to gross margin and added $0.05 to EPS. In other words, excluding this one-time benefit, the underlying operating margin requires closer scrutiny. More troublingly, AI data centers are aggressively consuming memory capacity, driving up storage chip prices—and smartphone manufacturers are beginning to feel the cost pressure. Although Apple has strong supply chain bargaining power, it cannot remain entirely insulated. Management provided a gross margin guidance of only 45%–46% for the next quarter, a clear decline from this quarter’s 47.9%. This is what truly unsettles the market. Third, AI may be key to Apple’s next growth phase—but it hasn’t fully materialized yet. Microsoft, Google, and Meta are pouring massive resources into AI infrastructure. Apple’s approach is different: it aims to integrate AI directly into the iPhone, Mac, and its entire ecosystem. This strategy has advantages—it avoids the heavy capital expenditures required by other tech firms. But the reality is stark: Will AI drive users to upgrade their phones? Will it convince them to pay premium prices for higher-end hardware? If AI merely adds a few new features without significantly extending upgrade cycles or boosting services revenue, Wall Street won’t keep betting on the AI narrative indefinitely. Finally, why did the stock drop despite beating earnings expectations? I believe the core reason is that the market is now pricing in next quarter—not the just-ended one. Apple expects revenue growth of 7%–10% for the December quarter, with Services growth at 8%–9%, and gross margin likely falling to 45%–46%. Combined with rising memory costs, increased AI server investments, and constrained supply of some new products, investors are naturally reassessing profit potential over the coming quarters. There’s another noteworthy change: This is the first earnings report under new CEO John Ternus. Apple is currently in a transitional phase between cycles. Apple’s greatest remaining advantage is still its vast base of active devices, strong brand premium, and robust services ecosystem. But its challenges are equally clear: Can hardware growth continue? Can AI create new upgrade demand? And will rising memory costs erode profitability? A great company doesn’t mean any price is justified. This report proves Apple remains highly profitable—but it hasn’t yet demonstrated that it has found a second growth curve for the AI era. Next quarter, watch two metrics closely: the impact of memory prices on gross margin, and actual iPhone sales performance in the December quarter. These two indicators matter more than simply tracking record-breaking revenue figures.

If AI isn’t a bubble, you’ll lose your job. If AI is a bubble, you’ll lose your savings. Most likely, AI is currently in a financial bubble but still on an exponential improvement curve. So you’ll lose your savings first, then your job.

I wondered why the U.S. stock market keeps plunging every day. Turns out there’s a sale going on. The U.S. Double Eleven is here—Intel is now 50% off, SanDisk at 54% off, Broadcom at 67% off, Circle at 55% off https://t.co/94mfOuIgCf

Have U.S. stocks also been stolen by North Korean hackers? I just saw Intel drop 25%. The entire AI sector is crashing. Has the NYSE been hacked? Please issue a statement soon???? https://t.co/fJqaevLPdx

Apple's new computers released today cost over 110,000 yuan. The top configuration is 230,000 yuan. Who moved my Xiaomi Yu7 to someone else's desk? I'm starting to miss Cook. https://t.co/7gWBUlZ0ia

Google dropped after hours. Right after earnings, it fell roughly 7% to over 10%. Man, that’s insane. Cloud revenue doubled year-over-year to $30.7 billion, up 103%, closing in fast on Azure. Operating profit rose 30%, with Cloud profitability hitting 36%. The numbers look solid on the surface, but EPS missed expectations badly. EPS came in at $2.12, below the expected $3+. This is the first time in four years that both revenue and profit missed estimates. Looking at the reasons for the sell-off: Advertising weakened. Search fell short, with ad revenue down about $1.4 billion. Search ads are Google’s core revenue driver—any hiccup here and the market won’t buy it. Also, unrealized losses on equity investments totaled around $8.7 billion. The company’s footnote noted: net income reduced by $6.7 billion, and EPS diluted by roughly $0.55. Last year, this segment was profitable; this year, it crushed results. The most painful blow? Free cash flow turned negative by about $9.1 billion this quarter—the second consecutive quarter. Capital expenditures hit $51.4 billion, with full-year spending projected at $195–205 billion. The CFO even said they’ll ramp up further through 2027. The market isn’t panicking because AI lacks a story—it’s worried about how much cash will be left after all the spending. Buy U.S. stocks? Follow @MSX_CN

Dongshan Precision's H-share offering debuted below issue price. Issue price: HK$86.8; opened directly at HK$82.4, a drop of over 5%. Even more striking, the public offering received only 0.52 times subscription. Retail investors largely fled, resulting in a 100% allocation rate for one lot. But that’s not the worst part. The H-shares are trading at roughly a 35% discount compared to A-shares—nearly a 65% discount—yet still no buyers. Anchor investors like Alibaba and J.P. Morgan Asset Management collectively invested about $680 million, covering half the offering. Institutions bailed it out; retail investors voted with their feet. Some investors subscribed at the maximum limit of 600,000 shares, suffering peak unrealized losses of approximately HK$3.18 million. It’s now firmly the worst new listing of the year. Remind you of Chabudao? Back then, public subscription was also around 0.5 times, and the stock plunged about 27% on its first day. Just two weeks ago, it was suspended by the SEC amid heightened concerns over potential manipulation of the IPO—suspected “wei fei” activity: fabricating demand through undisclosed agreements and recycling proceeds back into the system. Chabudao shattered investor confidence in Hong Kong IPOs last time. Here at Dongshan Precision, all the narratives are there—AI theme, “King of Suzhou stocks,” optical module story—but the market still won’t buy in. The Yuan family’s wealth surged on the Hurun Report, yet Hong Kong investors completely ignore it. It feels like most stocks coming to Hong Kong from Mainland China are just garbage.

U.S. SEC filings show that AI company Anthropic, PBC has publicly filed an S-1 registration statement with the stock ticker ANT. Leading underwriters include Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Financial data indicates Anthropic’s revenue for 2025 was $4.585 billion. Revenue for 2024 was $386 million. Revenue for the first half of 2026 was $16.286 billion, compared to $1.163 billion in the same period last year. Net loss for the first half of 2026 was $80.748 billion. Of this, losses from fair value changes in convertible notes, derivative liabilities, and SAFE instruments amounted to $72.388 billion.

Over the past couple of days, I went to claim my rewards from @DowProtocol on Sui and discovered that the additional Vault rewards had to be claimed on BNB Chain. Wow—just when I was harvesting rewards on Sui, I got redirected to BNB Chain 😄 This strategy feels very much like cross-platform user引流 (traffic diversion) from the internet era. You didn’t plan to go to another chain, but to claim your reward, you end up connecting your wallet and engaging with the product. That’s a smart user acquisition entry point. Looking at what BNB Chain has been rolling out recently, it truly feels like “I want it all.” There’s tokenized stocks with Ondo and xStocks, stablecoins like @UTechStables’ $U, and DeFi—well, they’ve always had a strong foundation. I think this space is worth watching. As on-chain products multiply, we need ways to connect them. Take United Stables: by partnering to create real use cases for $U, they give users more reasons to hold and use their stablecoins. Back to @DowProtocol—they’re in the business of merchant working capital financing. In simple terms: merchants have sold goods, but the platform hasn’t settled payment yet, so there’s a cash flow gap in between—and that’s exactly what DowProtocol fills. It’s far more interesting to see RWA applied to such concrete, real-world business models than just talking about abstract sectors. This reward claim was a small entry point—but I’ll keep watching to see how many practical use cases can emerge from connecting with the BNB Chain ecosystem.

Every crash sees big whales buying the dip. Just now, around 40 wallets bought 9,458 BTC at the bottom— roughly $772 million. I remember that the month before Christmas every year, the market usually performs poorly. Thankfully, I had already cleared my position. https://t.co/5WiHfo6bWS