By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 12th, 2024
Apple (AAPLE) stock has begun dropping after it was revealed that the company, as well as other tech giants, may face an antitrust probe.
WWDC, Apple’s annual conference, is an important event targeted not only at tech specialists but at the company’s investors and customers as well. Traditionally at the framework of such a conference, executives unveil new innovations and further their plans.
As Coinspeaker has already reported, the event took place yesterday, on June 3. Though the company hasn’t announced a new iPhone, it has made a row of other important announcements.
It has introduced a trailer for an Apple TV Plus original series, upgrades to the Apple Watch software, a new Mac Pro, new health-related apps. Moreover, the company has revealed more details of new features in both iOS 13 and the next Mac OS.
But the conference has coincided with a quite unpleasant situation for Apple. Its stocks have begun falling. And here is the reason.
Possible Antitrust Probe
According to the recently revealed information, the U.S. Justice Department now has jurisdiction for a possible antitrust probe of the company. This probe is just a part of wider research of whether such giants as Apple and Google benefit from their size to violate the rules of fair competition.
This information has been provided by two sources who preferred to stay unnamed due to the specificity of the issue. Nevertheless, it also became known that the Justice Department had received the jurisdiction to undertake potential antitrust probes of both Apple and Google. At the same time, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be responsible for investigating Amazon and Facebook.
By the press time, neither Apple nor the Department of Justice made any comments following the requests of journalists. It’s also worth mentioning that there is no information on what particular concerns the government may have regarding Apple.
Apple Stock
Just for a reminder, less than two weeks ago Apple topped Forbes’ annual list of the world’s most valuable brands. The company’s valuation increased by 12% over last year. But it was not the only achievement. For the first time in its history, Apple managed to cross the $200 billion thresholds.
Nevertheless, in the context of China-US trade, Apple has rather tough sale times. In May, it lost nearly 16% of its stock value. But in the yesterdays’ earlier trading session, AAPL shares were slightly positive.
After the report on a possible antitrust probe was revealed, the AAPL stock price was down as much as 2.4%. And the value was established at the level of $170.87 per share. By the end of the official trading day, the situation had improved a little bit. The session was closed with the price of $173.30 per share.
The stocks of other tech giants that may face an antitrust probe as well were also down. Facebook stock lost 7.7% to $164.14 a share. Alphabet was down 6.7% at $1,032.21 a share. And AMZN stock lost 4.9% dropping to $1,688.80 a share.