Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock started a pivotal and high profile week on the front foot, with the stock up just shy of 1% in early premarket deals.
In New York, Apple was up $1.40 or 0.8% changing hands at $179.58.
It comes ahead of tomorrow’s hotly anticipated unveiling of the iPhone 15.
Last week, Apple stock gave up some 5% as China ratcheted up pressure on the American consumer tech giant by widening bans on iPhone usage in the country - following the launch of Huawei’s Mate 60 smartphone, China said it would stop state employees using Apple devices.
Apple holds an approximate 19% share of the smartphone market in China and the competitive threat from state-backed Huawei alongside the increased political threat was a warning shot for investors.
Coming ahead of this week’s unveiling of the iPhone 15, which will reportedly be manufactured in India, and not China, it was seen as a timely maneuver by the state.
Analysts at Wedbush, however, weren’t overly concerned by last week’s kneejerk stock market reaction.
“Any China government agency iPhone ban is way overblown,” the broker said in a note to clients.
“To quantify, its less than 500,000 iPhones of roughly 45 million we expect to be sold in China over the next 12 months.”