FirstFT: Apple iPhone sales rebound but total revenue continues to fall

Apple iPhone sales rebound supply chain disruptions over the holiday season, up 2% in the quarter to $51.3 billion, ahead of estimates of $48.9 billion.

The rise came as a relief to investors who wondered what demand would look like following an outbreak of Covid-19 at the Foxconn factory known as ‘iPhone City’ which had derailed production in november.

CEO Tim Cook said Apple got through “this parade of awful things. . . between the pandemic and chip shortages and macroeconomic factors”. He added: “The supply chain has been incredibly resilient and we are happy with who we are and our plans.”

But total revenue still fell 2.5% year on year to $94.8 billion in the three months to the end of March, the second consecutive quarter of decline, due to what the company described as a “more challenging” economic environment and currency headwinds.

Here’s what else is happening today and over the weekend:

Thanks for reading FirstFT. If you’re looking for a more in-depth analysis of UK polls while you wait for the results, I recommend the recent edition of Stephen Bush’s Inside Politics newsletter, which explains the national issues behind local elections.

Five other top stories

1. US regional banks suffered sharp declines in share prices yesterday amid renewed calls for intervention from Washington. Activist investor Nelson Peltz told the Financial Times that the deposit insurance limit should be increased. Here’s the latest on the US banking turmoil.

2. A flood of government securities sales is driving up UK government borrowing costs, say investors, as markets are urged to absorb record volumes of bonds without the Bank of England stepping in to increase supply. Read the full story.

3. Bill Clinton realized it was “only a matter of time” before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, the former US president said, recalling remarks made by the Russian leader in 2011 about an agreement to respect Ukrainian territory reached under Putin’s predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. Here’s what Clinton remembered from his chilling conversation with Putin.

4. Shares of the UK’s largest homebuilders have unexpectedly rallied by more than 20% on average since January, with investors increasingly betting that Britain will avoid a sharp drop in property prices. Learn more about the most recent developer results.

5. Millions of Britons are overpaying on mobile phone contracts because carriers are unfairly charging higher prices to customers on “bundled” packages, according to new data released today by Virgin Media O2, which called on competitors to stop ‘scamming’ customers.

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The big read

Last year, ByteDance employees via TikTok accessed journalists’ personal information, including their physical locations, as part of an attempt to trace writers’ sources after a series of damaging stories about the business. One of the victims was FT tech correspondent Cristina Criddle. It’s his story.

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Card of the day

Progressives win immigration debate in Western countries, with some theorizing that the success of anti-immigration populism has spurred previously complacent moderates to voice support for diversity, writes chief journalist John Burn-Murdoch.

Listen to Hillary Clinton live in conversation with FT US Editor Edward Luce on May 20 during our FTWeekend festival. Sign up now and get $20 off as a newsletter subscriber with promo code NewslettersxFestival at ft.com/festival-us.

Take a break from the news

Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner have reinvented popular British cinema with hits from Four weddings For love in fact. The industry has changed remarkably since then. But their MO is pretty much what it was 30 years ago. “Every movie always boils down to this: cover your nuts and jump“, Bevan said.

Additional contributions from Gordon Smith and Emily Goldberg