The US / China trade war has its first victim after Apple just warned investors that weak iPhone sales in China and elsewhere will result in it missing guidance by around 8% for the Christmas quarter ending December 31, 2018.
It now expects around US$84 billion of revenue for the quarter compared to prior guidance for revenue between US$89 billion to US$93 billion.
Apple's CEO Tim Cook placed the blame on trade tensions between the US and China with anecdotal reports coming in that Chinese consumers were boycotting Apple products in response to the perception that a trade war is being waged against China by the U.S. government.
Other factors blamed on the revenue miss include a stronger U.S. dollar and the cycle of sales of the latest model of the iPhone X, alongside weakness in emerging markets outside China. On top of this it also revealed weaker-than-expected sales of the Apple Watch 4, iPad Pro, AirPods and MacBook Air.
Apple stock is already down 30% over the past quarter as the market sensed weaker-than-forecast iPhone sales, with the stock likely to tumble again on the back of the shock news.
