Every quarter, Apple manages to impress with its gargantuan cash hoard, which in Q2 rose to $262 billion (which however is $153 billion net of debt), a new all time high as shown in the chart below.
The following article by David Haggith is from The Great Recession Blog:
Having 'predictweeted' Dow 22k yesterday, Apple's 6% surge (after missing iphone sales estimates) has confirmed President Trump's forecast and crossed the Dow Maginot Line for the first time... as Trannies diverge drastically (testing the 200DMA).
We note that Dow Futures briefly spiked above 22,020 last night...
But as the cash market opens, The Dow is now above 22,000...
Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 0.8% after Apple surged to record highs following a strong beat and optimistic projections ahead of the launch of the company's new batch of iPhones. Eminis are little changed, up 0.1% to 2,475, trailing Asian markets, while European stocks and crude oil fall.
With Apple trading just shy of all time highs (and with a quarter trillion in cash on the books), the market was wondering if AAPL can once again surprise to the upside ahead of the all important iPhone 8 quarter, as well as provide some guidance what it plans to do with its cash hoard. And while, there was no explicit guidance on the now $260BN+ in gross cash, Apple has surged after hours on the strong top and bottom line beat, and just as strong guidance, despite a small iPhone sales miss in the current quarter.