Tech 5: Apple Reports Quarterly Earnings, Hong Kong Debuts Spot Crypto ETFs

1. Apple's quarterly earnings beat analysts expectations

Apple reported its Q2 earnings report after the closing bell on Thursday. At that time, Apple’s share price had fallen about 7 percent year-to-date as iPhone sales declined in the Greater China region. Apple is facing intensifying competition in China, with local Chinese brands like Huawei, HONOR and Xiaomi (OTC Pink:XIACF, HKEX:1810) continuing to grow.

Ahead of the release, analysts predicted a year-over-year 4.75 percent decline in total revenue to US$90.3 billion, and revenue in the Greater China region to fall to US$15.87 billion. Additionally, iPhone revenue was expected to drop by 10.8 percent, iPad revenue by 11 percent and Mac revenue by 5 percent.

Actual earnings beat estimates by a modest amount. The company’s quarterly revenue totaled US$90.8 billion, down by 4 percent year-over-year. Surprisingly, while sales in the Greater China region did drop year-over-year, they came in above expectations at US$16.37 billion. Mac sales also performed strongly, growing by 3.9 percent. However, iPhone sales were down 10 percent in line with expectations, and iPad sales fell by 16 percent.

Ultimately, earnings per share came in at US$1.53, slightly above estimates of US$1.50.

The company also announced a record-breaking US$110 billion share buyback program — the largest ever recorded and 22 percent higher than last year’s US$90 billion buyback — and raised its quarterly dividend by 4 percent to US$0.25 per share, payable on May 16.

Additionally, Apple hinted at an exciting announcement during its upcoming product launch on May 7, with many speculating that it could be a new iPad.

In response to these developments, shares surged 7.8 percent after hours on Thursday and opened at US$186.64 Friday morning, up 8.39 percent from Thursday morning. Apple closed the week at US$183.38.

2. Spot crypto ETFs debut in Hong Kong

Six spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs launched in Hong Kong on Monday (April 29), generating US$11.2 million on the first trading day.

The Bosera HashKey Bitcoin ETF (HKEX:3008), Bosera HashKey Ether ETF (HKEX:3009), ChinaAMC Bitcoin ETF (HKEX:3042), ChinaAMC Ether ETF (HKEX:3046), Harvest Bitcoin Spot ETF (HKEX:3439) and Harvest Ether Spot ETF (HKEX:3179) are the first spot crypto ETFs listed in Asia.

According to a statement provided by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), the successful launch of three futures-based crypto ETFs — Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF (HKEX:3135), CSOP Bitcoin Futures ETF (HKEX:3066) and CSOP Ether Futures ETF (HKEX:3068) — in 2022 led to a growing investor interest in virtual assets.

Although the new assets are available to qualified foreign investors and investors in Hong Kong, the Chinese government has banned all crypto-related activities since 2021, leaving mainland Chinese investors out of the ecosystem.

Unlike US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs, which can only be bought with dollars, Hong Kong’s spot crypto products permit investors to purchase ETFs with crypto and sell them for cash, or buy ETFs with cash and redeem them for cryptocurrency. The in-kind feature of Hong Kong’s spot crypto ETFs gives them a unique two-way investment flexibility.

Compared to the January 10 US approval, which generated US$4.6 billion on the first day of trading, Hong Kong’s spot ETF debut seems lackluster. However, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Blachunas considers this figure commendable in the context of Hong Kong’s spot crypto ETFs already having substantial assets under management in place before trading began, indicating a more considerable level of investment than the trading volumes suggest.

Another difference is that the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission conditionally approved the spot ETFs on April 15, making them available to investors before final approval. US regulators gave their full approval on the same day that trading began.

“If you localize numbers this was BIG: eg ChinaAMC bitcoin ETF took in $123m on Day One,” he posted to X, formerly Twitter, on April 30.

3. Anthropic launches two updates for Claude chatbot

Software provider Anthropic, an AI startup founded by former executives at OpenAI, announced two updates for its AI chatbot Claude that will put the ChatGPT rival in the hands of more users.

The company launched a new team plan in which team members can create unique workspaces and leverage the AI capabilities of the Claude Model 3 family to manage workflow. It comes with built-in security and data protection, plus a range of administrative tools and a billing management system. Users will also get access to all the Claude Pro features like early access to new tools and priority access during high-traffic periods.

In a press release, Anthropic indicated that additional features will be rolled out over the next few weeks. The team plan costs US$30 per user per month for a minimum of five team members.

The second update is Anthropic’s release of an iOS app version of Claude free for all users.

4. DOJ and Google deliver closing arguments

Closing arguments in the antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google were held on Thursday and Friday. The DOJ and Google made their final statements before US District Judge Amit Mehta.

The DOJ originally filed the lawsuit against Google in January 2023, accusing the company of illegally monopolizing the search engine and advertising markets by conducting exclusive deals with mobile carriers and mega-cap companies like Apple.

A crucial aspect of the trial is the 21-year exclusive agreement between Google and fellow mega-cap tech company Apple. At first, Apple agreed to maintain Google as the default search engine on its web browser, Safari, at no cost. Later, the two companies agreed to share profits generated from search advertising. Kevin Murphy, a professor at the University of Chicago who took the stand as a witness for Google in November 2023, disclosed that Google pays Apple 36 percent of what it earns from search advertising through Safari.

Court documents reveal that in 2020, 17.5 percent of Apple’s operating income came from payments from Google. In 2021, Google paid Apple more than US$1 billion per month to maintain its position, and in 2022 Google paid Apple a total of US$20 billion, a figure provided by Apple’s senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue.

Despite accusations against Google that it engaged in anticompetitive behavior to maintain its dominance, the company has reiterated that it simply offers the best product and that people choose to use it over its competitors.

“Google winning contracts because it has a better product is not a harm to the competitive process,” John Schmidtlein, the company’s lawyer, argued during the trial last fall.

Judge Mehta is expected to issue a ruling in the Google antitrust case in the late summer or early autumn.

5. Automation could bring turbine blade production home

In an excellent example of how robotics can be applied to solve real-world problems and improve working conditions for humans, researchers at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are researching the use robots to address challenging working conditions in wind turbine production, specifically with the creation of the blades.

Robots have been used to paint and polish blades in the past, but recent research has demonstrated that automation can be applied to trimming, grinding and sanding wind turbine blades.

“I would consider it a success,” said Hunter Huth, a robotics engineer at NREL and lead author of the paper detailing the research, which was published in Wind Energy on Monday. “Not everything operated as well as we wanted it to, but we learned all the lessons we think we need to make it meet or exceed our expectations.”

According to a news release on the NREL website, the motivation behind the research was to find cost-effective ways to produce blades in the US. High labor costs are one of the primary reasons that blades are made overseas, Hugh said. Although the robot’s performance in the research was not compared to that of a human, Huth said the point of the research was to develop an automated system to retain skilled labor.

“The finishing process is very labor intensive and has a high job-turnover rate due to the harsh nature of the work,” he said. Post-molding work can be dangerous, requiring workers to wear protective clothing including respiratory gear and scale scaffolding.

Huth also said consistency in manufacturing would improve with automation, and that a robot could sand with tougher abrasives than a human could.

Although the process still has a long way to go to reach perfection — as in some cases the robot ground too much of the blade while in other cases it didn't grind enough — it's a promising step forward in the wind turbine production industry.