Business

iPhone-maker Apple clinched revenue records in over two dozen markets, including India, in June quarter earnings that topped street expectations, but CEO Tim Cook called out the “evolving” tariff situation and estimated September-quarter tariff costs at about $1.1 billion.

During the Q3 FY2025 earnings, Mr. Cook spoke of opening new stores in India and the UAE later this year.

He said the company saw iPhone growth in every geographic segment and double-digit growth in emerging markets, including India, the Middle East, South Asia, and Brazil.

“We saw an acceleration of growth around the world in the vast majority of markets we track, including greater China and many emerging markets, and we had June quarter revenue records in more than two dozen countries and regions, including the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Western Europe, the Middle East, India, and South Asia,” Cook said, adding these results were driven by double-digit growth across iPhone, Mac, and services.

The situation around tariffs is “evolving”, he said, adding that for the June quarter, the company incurred about $800 million of tariff-related costs.

“For the September quarter, assuming the current global tariff rates, policies, and applications do not change for the balance of the quarter, and no new tariffs are added, we estimate the impact to add about $1.1 billion to our costs. This estimate should not be used to make projections for future quarters, as there are many factors that could change, including tariff rates,” he said.

He mentioned the recently-launched Apple Store online in Saudi Arabia, and said, “We couldn’t be more excited to open new stores in the UAE and India later this year”.

For the June quarter, the tech titan reported revenue of $94.04 billion, the 10% year-on-year growth topping Wall Street expectations, while net profit came in at $23.42 billion, up 9.2% from a year ago.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has announced a 25% tariff on India as the White House released a list of duties that Washington will levy on exports from nations across the globe. In an Executive Order titled ‘Further Modifying The Reciprocal Tariff Rates’, President Donald Trump announced tariff rates for nearly 70 nations around the world.

Stock market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declined in early trade on Friday (August 1, 2025) amid tariff related concerns and sustained foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell by 111.17 points to 81,074.41 in opening trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty dropped 33.45 points to 24,734.90.

India will face tariffs of 25% on its exports to the U.S. as President Donald Trump issued an executive order listing the various duties that Washington will impose on exports from countries around the world.

From the Sensex firms, Sun Pharma tumbled over 5% after the company reported a 20% year-on-year decline in consolidated net profit to ₹2,279 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2025.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Infosys and Larsen & Toubro were also among the laggards.

Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Asian Paints and Maruti were among the gainers.

In the Executive Order titled ‘Further Modifying The Reciprocal Tariff Rates’, Trump announced tariff rates for nearly 70 nations.

A 25% “Reciprocal Tariff, Adjusted” has been imposed on India, according to the list released. The executive order however does not mention the “penalty” that Mr. Trump had said India will have to pay because of its purchases of Russian military equipment and energy.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹5,588.91 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

“The August series starts on a weak note after the 3.1% dip in Nifty in July. In the near-term, the market will be influenced by the tariff-related news. Since the date of implementation of the modified tariff rates is August 7th, that gives countries time to negotiate and bring the tariffs down. That may happen.

“Yesterday’s market action indicates that the market views the 25% tariff as a short-term issue. The rate is likely to come down after the next round of negotiations beginning this month,” V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

Sustained selling by the FIIs continues to be a negative, he added.

In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng were trading lower.

The U.S. markets ended in negative territory on Thursday.

“Key drags include Trump’s tariff hike, hawkish Fed signals, soft Q1 earnings, FII selling, and a deteriorating technical setup,” Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.97% to $72.53 a barrel.

On Thursday, the Sensex declined 296.28 points or 0.36% to settle at 81,185.58. The Nifty dropped 86.70 points or 0.35% to 24,768.35.

The rupee appreciated 40 paise to 87.25 against the U.S. dollar in early trade on Friday (August 1, 2025), amid lower crude prices and suspected RBI interventions as the U.S.’s imposition of a 25% tariff on Indian exports heightened investors’ concerns.

Forex traders said the U.S.’s imposition of a 25% tariff on Indian exports triggered risk-off sentiment and heightened concerns regarding further rupee depreciation.

Moreover, investors are focused on U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of new, and mostly higher tariffs on U.S. trading partners beginning August 1.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 87.60 and touched an early high of 87.25 against the greenback, registering a gain of 40 paise from its previous close.

On Thursday, the rupee recovered 15 paise from an all-time low level to close at 87.65 against the U.S. dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose by 0.07% to 100.03.

“The dollar headed for its best week in almost three years against its major peers, maintaining a momentum on Friday as Donald Trump imposed new tariff rates on dozens of trading partners,” said Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP.

Brent oil prices fell 0.97% to $72.53 per barrel as traders digested the impact of new, higher U.S. tariffs that may curtail economic activity and lower global fuel demand.

“On Thursday, the rupee made a low of 87.75 but closed at 87.5950 as RBI stepped in to cool off the market,” Bhansali said.

“The Indian rupee, if protected by the Reserve Bank of India [RBI], may soon see levels of 87.00 in the days to come, but needs a close watch and on RBI’s presence to keep it in a tightish range,” he said.

In the domestic equity market, Sensex declined 145.71 points or 0.18% to 81,039.87, while Nifty fell 64.70 points or 0.26% to 24,703.65.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹5,588.91 crore on a net basis on Thursday, according to exchange data.

On the domestic macroeconomic front, the centre’s fiscal deficit stood at 17.9% of the full-year target at the end of June, according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Thursday.

It was at 8.4% of the Budget Estimates (BE) of 2024-25 in the first three months of the previous financial year.

In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit, or gap between the government’s expenditure and revenue, was ₹2,80,732 crore in the April-June period of the 2025-26 fiscal year.

Nvidia chips do not contain “backdoors” allowing remote access, the U.S. tech giant has said, after Beijing summoned company representatives to discuss “serious security issues”.

The California-based company is a world-leading producer of AI semiconductors, and this month became the first company to hit $4 trillion in market value.

But it has become entangled in trade tensions between China and the United States, and Washington effectively restricts which chips Nvidia can export to China on national security grounds.

“Cybersecurity is critically important to us. Nvidia does not have ‘backdoors’ in our chips that would give anyone a remote way to access or control them,” Nvidia said in a statement Thursday.

A key issue has been Chinese access to the “H20”: a less powerful version of Nvidia’s AI processing units that the company developed specifically for export to China.

Nvidia said this month it would resume H20 sales to China after Washington pledged to remove licensing curbs that had halted exports.

But the tech giant still faces obstacles. U.S. lawmakers have proposed plans to require Nvidia and other manufacturers of advanced AI chips to include built-in location tracking capabilities.

Beijing’s top internet regulator said Thursday it had summoned Nvidia representatives to discuss recently discovered “serious security issues” involving the H20.

The Cyberspace Administration of China said it had asked Nvidia to “explain the security risks of vulnerabilities and backdoors in its H20 chips sold to China and submit relevant supporting materials”.

China is aiming to reduce reliance on foreign tech by promoting Huawei’s domestically developed 910C chip as an alternative to the H20, said Jost Wubbeke of the Sinolytics consultancy.

“From that perspective, the U.S. decision to allow renewed exports of the H20 to China could be seen as counterproductive, as it might tempt Chinese hyperscalers to revert to the H20, potentially undermining momentum behind the 910C and other domestic alternatives,” he said.

Other hurdles to Nvidia’s operations in China are the sputtering economy, beset by a years-long property sector crisis, and heightened trade headwinds under U.S. President Donald Trump.

CEO Jensen Huang said during a visit to Beijing this month that the company remained committed to serving local customers, adding that he had been assured during talks with top Chinese officials that the country was “open and stable”.

Alphabet’s Google on Thursday failed to persuade a U.S. appeals panel to overturn a jury verdict and federal court order requiring the technology company to revamp its app store Play. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a unanimous ruling, rejected claims from Google that the trial judge made legal errors in the antitrust case that unfairly benefited “Fortnite” maker Epic Games, which filed the lawsuit in 2020.

Epic accused Google of monopolising how consumers access apps on Android devices and pay for transactions within apps. The Cary, North Carolina-based company convinced a San Francisco jury in 2023 that Google illegally stifled competition.

U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco ordered Google in October to restore competition by allowing users to download rival app stores within its Play store and by making Play’s app catalog available to those competitors, among other reforms.

Donato’s order was on hold pending the outcome of the 9th Circuit appeal. The court’s decision can be appealed to the full 9th Circuit and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a statement, Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said the appeals court’s ruling “will significantly harm user safety, limit choice, and undermine the innovation that has always been central to the Android ecosystem.”

The company said it would continue to focus on “ensuring a secure platform as we continue our appeal.”

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said in a social media post: “Thanks to the verdict, the Epic Games Store for Android will be coming to the Google Play Store!”

Google told the appeals court that the tech company’s Play store competes with Apple’s App Store, and that Donato unfairly barred Google from making that point to contest Epic’s antitrust claims.

The tech company also argued that a jury should never have heard Epic’s lawsuit because it sought to enjoin Google’s conduct — a request normally decided by a judge — and not collect damages.

Epic has defended the verdict and court injunction, telling the 9th Circuit judges that the Android app market has been “suffering under anti-competitive behavior for the better part of a decade.”

In the trial court and in the appeal, Epic disputed arguments by Google that changes to its app business ordered by the court would harm user privacy and security.

Microsoft filed a brief backing Epic, as did the U.S. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission.

Epic separately is battling Apple over a U.S. judge’s order requiring the iPhone maker to give developers greater freedom to steer consumers to make purchases outside its App Store. Apple has appealed a ruling that said it violated a prior injunction in a lawsuit that Epic filed in 2020.

Amazon reported a 35% jump in quarterly profits Thursday as the e-commerce giant said major investments in artificial intelligence began paying off.

But the Seattle-based company’s profit outlook for the current quarter came in lower than hoped for, with investors worried that the cost of AI was weiging on the bottom line.

Amazon’s share price was trading about 6% lower in after hours trading.

This was despite a stellar second quarter that exceeded analyst expecations, much like it did for its AI focused rivals Google, Microsoft and Meta, which posted bumper results for the period.

“Our conviction that AI will change every customer experience is starting to play out,” said Chief Executive Andy Jassy, pointing to the company’s expanded Alexa+ service and new AI shopping agents.

Amazon posted net profit of $18.2 billion for the second quarter that ended June 30, compared with $13.5 billion in the same period last year.

Net sales climbed 13% to $167.7 billion, beating analyst expectations and signalling that the company was surviving the impacts of the high-tariff trade policy under U.S. President Donald Trump.

“There continues to be a lot of noise about the impact that tariffs will have on retail prices and consumption. Much of it thus far has been wrong and misreported,” Jassy told analysts.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s world leading cloud computing division, led the charge with sales jumping 17.5 percent to $30.9 billion.

The unit’s operating profit rose to $10.2 billion from $9.3 billion a year earlier.

The strong AWS performance reflects surging demand for cloud infrastructure to power AI applications, a trend that has benefited major cloud providers as companies race to adopt generative AI technologies.

But investors seemed worried about Amazon’s big cash outlays to pursue its AI ambitions, sending its share price more than three percent lower in after-hours trading.

The company’s free cash flow declined sharply to $18.2 billion, down from $53 billion in the same period last year, as Amazon ramped up capital spending on AI infrastructure and logistics.

The company spent $32.2 billion on property and equipment in the quarter, nearly double the $17.6 billion spent a year earlier, reflecting massive investments in data centers and backroom capabilities.

Amazon has pledged to spend up to $100 billion this year, largely on AI-related investments for AWS.

For the current quarter, Amazon forecast net sales between $174.0 billion and $179.5 billion, representing solid growth of 10-13% compared with the third quarter of 2024.

But operating profit was forecast in a wide range from $15.5 billion to $20.5 billion in the current third quarter, which was more cautious than some had hoped for.

The caution indicates that “there’s still potential for curveballs from ongoing trade negotiations and accelerating competition on the AI front,” said Emarketer analyst Sky Canaves.

Shares of Microsoft spiked Thursday following blowout quarterly results, lifting the tech giant into the previously unprecedented $4 trillion club along with Nvidia, another artificial intelligence standout.

The landmark valuation is the latest sign of growing bullishness about an AI investment boom that market watchers believe is still in the early stages, even as companies like Microsoft plan $100 billion or more in annual capital spending to add new capacity.

Microsoft reported profit of $27.2 billion on revenue of $76.4 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter, capping another year of growth amid massive customer interest in the company’s cutting-edge AI capacity.

Shortly after midday, Microsoft shares were up 4.3%, giving it a market capitalisation slightly under $4 trillion after earlier eclipsing the benchmark.

“Cloud and AI is the driving force of business transformation across every industry and sector,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “We’re innovating across the tech stack to help customers adapt and grow in this new era.”

The results drew plaudits from Wall Street analysts on an earnings conference call at which Nadella boasted that the company had opened new data centres across six continents in the last year and touted major contracts for global companies like Nestle and Barclays.

Microsoft was one of the first tech giants to double down on artificial intelligence when the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 rocked the tech industry. Microsoft has had a strategic partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI since 2019, holding rights to its intellectual property.

At the heart of the results was a stunning 39% surge in Azure, the company’s legacy cloud computing platform, which is getting “supercharged” with AI, said Angelo Zino, technology analyst at CFRA Research.

Zino attributed “just about all of” Microsoft’s recent surge in valuation to AI.

While Nvidia is part of a wave of tech companies that have risen to prominence with the AI boom of the last few years, Microsoft has long been among America’s corporate elite, joining the prestigious Dow index in 1999, more than a decade after introducing the once-revolutionary Windows.

The company’s revenue base includes such workplace mainstays as the Outlook email platform and the LinkedIn career website. Microsoft also has a significant gaming division with the Xbox console.

All of these businesses are set to benefit from Microsoft’s AI advantages.

“We view (Microsoft) as kind of the enterprise king,” said Zino. “What AI does is it provides new growth opportunities for this company.”

For all of fiscal 2025, Microsoft reported revenues of $281.7 billion, up 15% from the prior year. Microsoft’s revenues have more than doubled from 2018, when they were $110.4 billion.

Zino thinks Microsoft is poised for a comparable run over the next six or seven years when it could see annual revenue growth of 10% as greater use of AI creates even more opportunity.

The biggest risk to this outlook, and to the AI boom generally, would be “if we get to the point where supply for AI exceeds demand,” Zino said. “That could put pressure on pricing for cloud computing and space.”

Indian state refiners have stopped buying Russian oil in the past week as discounts narrowed this month and U.S. President Donald Trump warned countries not to purchase oil from Moscow, industry sources said.

India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, is the biggest buyer of seaborne Russian crude, a vital revenue earner for Russia as it wages war in Ukraine for a fourth year.

The country’s state refiners — Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Ltd — have not sought Russian crude in the past week or so, four sources familiar with the refiners’ purchase plans told Reuters.

IOC, BPCL, HPCL, MRPL and the federal oil ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

The four refiners regularly buy Russian oil on a delivered basis and have turned to spot markets for replacement supply — mostly Middle Eastern grades such as Abu Dhabi’s Murban crude and West African oil, sources said.

Private refiners Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy, majority owned by Russian entities including oil major Rosneft, have annual deals with Moscow and are the biggest Russian oil buyers in India.

On July 14, Mr. Trump threatened 100% tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace deal with Ukraine.

Indian refiners are pulling back from Russian crude as discounts shrink to their lowest since 2022, when Western sanctions were first imposed on Moscow, due to lower Russian exports and steady demand, sources said.

Refiners fear the latest EU curbs could complicate overseas trade including fund raising — even for buyers adhering to the price cap. India has reiterated its opposition to “unilateral sanctions”.

Mr. Trump on Wednesday (July 30, 2025) announced a 25% tariff on goods imported from India from August 1, but added that negotiations were ongoing. He also warned of potential penalties for purchase of Russian arms and oil.

On Monday (July 28, 2025) Mr. Trump cut the deadline to impose secondary sanction on buyers of Russian exports to 10-12 days from the previous 50-day period, if Moscow does not agree a peace deal with Ukraine.

Russia is the top supplier to India, responsible for about 35% of India’s overall supplies.

Private refiners bought nearly 60% of India’s average 1.8 million barrels per day of Russian oil imports in the first half of 2025, while state refiners that control over 60% of India’s overall 5.2 million bpd refining capacity, bought the remainder.

Reliance purchased Abu Dhabi Murban crude for loading in October this month, an unusual move by the refiner, traders said.