Apple CEO Tim Cook holds new iPhones during an Apple special event at Apple headquarters on Sept. 9, 2025 in Cupertino, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Critics may sneer at the iPhone 17 Pro’s fluorescent orange finish, but Apple’s “Cosmic Orange” smartphone seems to be dazzling where it counts — in sales and shares.
The newest iPhone 17 series, which includes the base iPhone 17 and its overachieving Pro and skinny Air siblings — that come in colors other than orange, to be clear — has been outselling its predecessor in the U.S. and China, according to Counterpoint Research. In China, the iPhone Air reportedly sold out within minutes of going on sale, per the South China Morning Post.
Investors noticed. Shares of Apple popped nearly 4% on the news and closed at an all-time high. That must be welcome news for CEO Tim Cook and investors for a stock that’s been trailing its Magnificent 7 peers. That brings Apple’s year-to-date gains to around 5%, compared with Nvidia’s 36% and 25% for Meta.
Another member of the Mag 7, however, had a bumpy Monday. Amazon’s cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, suffered an outage that took down sites such as Reddit and Snapchat, plunging millions, including yours truly, into existential crises. Still, Amazon shares managed to climb around 1.6%.
U.S. markets also rose more broadly, with major indexes ending Monday in the green. This week, investors will be keeping their eye on the U.S.’ trade developments with China as well as earnings reports from companies such as Netflix, Tesla and Intel — a mix that could make the next few days almost as colorful as Apple’s latest phone.
What you need to know today
And finally…
Liquid cooled servers in an installation at the Global Switch Docklands data centre campus in London, UK, on Monday, June 16, 2025.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
AI set to be a boon for emerging markets — but some investors aren’t convinced
“AI will change everything for emerging markets,” said Anton Osika, CEO and co-founder of Swedish startup Lovable, which allows others to create apps and websites via prompting, removing the need for technical knowledge.
However, AI doesn’t solve structural challenges faced by emerging markets. That means plenty of points of friction still exist, such as local funding availability and confidence that startups will secure revenue, according to Emmet King, managing partner and co-founder of J12 Ventures, an investment firm.
— Tasmin Lockwood