Apple price hikes and immediate market reaction
Apple announced steep price increases of roughly 15% to 25% across its Mac and iPad product lines, prompting the online store to be briefly taken down before relaunching with the new pricing. The base MacBook Air rose $200 to $1,299, the MacBook Pro climbed $300 to $1,999, and the entry‑level MacBook Neo increased $100 to $699. On the iPad side, the Air rose $150 to $749 and the Pro went up $200 to $1,199. iPhone prices were left unchanged, though Apple hinted that further hikes could follow. The announcement erased approximately $250 billion of Apple’s market capitalization and sent Apple shares down 6.15% on Thursday.
U.S. semiconductor stock decline
In pre‑market trading at 04:27 ET, U.S. chip stocks retreated sharply. On Semiconductor fell as much as 11.6%, Micron slid around 3.5%, and both AMD and Intel dropped about 2.8% each. U.S.-listed shares of ASML declined 2.3% and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) lost 1.3%, while Applied Materials and Qualcomm each edged lower. The broader sell‑off extended a global technology pull‑back that began after Apple’s pricing move.
Asian market backdrop
The weakness in U.S. pre‑market trading followed steep declines across Asian equity markets. China’s CSI 300 index closed 3% lower, the Shanghai Composite fell 2.3%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 1.8% to a fresh one‑year low, driven largely by AI‑related shares. South Korea’s KOSPI tumbled 5.8%.
Analyst commentary
"Big tech may at some point start to feel the pain of these higher component costs, and that can become a broader ecosystem headwind," said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo. He added that higher input costs, heavier capex needs and rising funding demands are making investors more selective about AI exposure, contributing to the cautious market tone. Analysts also noted that month‑end and quarter‑end rebalancing flows added to the choppiness in large‑cap technology names that had outperformed for much of the second quarter.