Shares in iPhone-maker Apple have slumped over the past few days, with the tech giant having suffered two analyst rating downgrades this week.
Jefferies (JEF) analyst Edison Lee lowered the investment bank's rating on Apple shares to "underperform" and decreased his price target on the stock by 13% to $200.75 (£162.88) on Monday.
Lee said in an investor note that he expected Apple's first quarter results — which are due out next week — to come in below expectations, and for the company to miss against estimates for the second quarter on weak iPhone sales and a lack of interest in AI among consumers.
Meanwhile, Loop Capital downgraded Apple from "buy" to "hold" and lowered its price target on the stock from $275 to $230.
Shares have also come under pressure as research has pointed to weaker smartphone market share for the iPhone in China. Counterpoint Research found sales of Apple's iPhones fell 18.2% in China in the December quarter, according to a Bloomberg report. The research also showed that the iPhone gave up its title of the top selling smartphone handsets in China to Huawei Technologies.
Data from market analyst firm Canalys, released last week, showed that Apple lost its top spot as the smartphone maker with the biggest market share in mainland China.
The fall in Apple shares this week has seen it overtaken once again by Nvidia (NVDA) to take title as the world's most valuable company.
Chip designer Arm Holding's stock surged nearly 16% in Wednesday's session, after CEO Rene Haas spoke of the company's role in the US "Stargate" AI project.
Haas said in an interview with CNBC that the project was "a pretty big deal when you just think about the scale of investment that we're talking about".
Newly reinstated US president Donald Trump unveiled the project on Tuesday, announcing $500bn in private sector investment to build the AI infrastructure in the US.
Initial equity funders for the project are OpenAI, Oracle (ORCL), SoftBank (9984.T) and MGX, while Nvidia (NVDA) is one of the initial technology partners.
Shares in the companies surged following the news, with Nvidia closing Wednesday's session up more than 4% and Oracle rising nearly 7%.
Shares in Electronic Arts (EA) slid nearly 14% in pre-market trading on Thursday, after the video game company slashed its guidance for the fiscal year.
The company, which is behind the EA Sport FC football game franchise and The Sims series, released its preliminary third quarter results on Wednesday.
EA said it now expects mid-single-digit decline in live services net bookings for the 2025 fiscal year, down from initial guidance of mid-single-digit growth.
The company said it had experienced a slowdown in its global football franchise, while also reporting a fall in engaged players for its Dragon Age game in the quarter.
EA said it expected net bookings of approximately $2.22bn for the third quarter and in between $7bn and $7.15bn for the year.
The company anticipated net revenue of $1.88bn for the third quarter and $1.11 diluted earnings per share.
Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, said that Dragon Age and EA Sports FC 25 "underperformed our net bookings expectations".
EA is due to release its final results for the third quarter on 4 February.
Sportswear brand Puma also released preliminary results on Wednesday that disappointed against estimates, sending shares 17% into the red on Thursday morning.
Puma posted 9.8% sales growth in the fourth quarter, at €2.29bn (£1.94bn), though this was below analyst expectations of 12% growth, according to a Reuters report.
Net income for the year came in at €282m, which was below the €305m it reported last year.
The company is due to report its full results for the 2024 financial year, along with its outlook for 2025 on 12 March.
In a note released on Wednesday, Deutsche Bank analysts said "Although the short-term outlook has some challenges, we like the three-year picture for Puma and accordingly rate the shares buy."
In the UK, Associated British Foods (ABF) lowered its full-year revenue guidance for retailer Primark from mid-single-digit growth to low-single-digits.
ABF said in a trading update on Thursday that Primark had experienced weaker like-for-like sales in the UK and Ireland in the autumn. The company said it expected Primark's adjusted operating profits to remain broadly in line with last year's level.
The food processing and retail company, which is also behind brands including Twinings and Kingsmill, said revenue for the group in the first quarter rose just 0.5% to £6.73bn ($8.29bn).
ABF shares were down nearly 3% following the release of the update on Thursday morning.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "When Primark says UK sales are weak, you know there has been a change in shopper behaviour. People might still be visiting its stores but they are being more selective and that’s a problem when the business model is built on shifting high volumes of goods."
"It’s situations like now where Primark’s parent company benefits from its conglomerate structure," Mould added. "While the retail arm has been weak, the ingredients arm has come to the rescue and that’s why the share price hasn’t tanked on the update."
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Other companies in the news on Thursday 23 January:
