NEW YORK, January 3, 2026, 07:29 ET — Market closed.
- Apple shares ended Friday down 0.3% at $271.01; U.S. markets are shut Saturday.
- Raymond James resumed coverage with a “Market Perform” rating, citing valuation.
- A report flagged Vision Pro cutbacks; investors next watch Monday’s ISM data and Apple’s late-January earnings.
Apple Inc shares ended the first U.S. trading day of 2026 down 0.3% at $271.01 on Friday. The iPhone maker traded as low as $269.12 and as high as $277.69.
The move matters because Apple is one of the biggest weights in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, so even modest swings can steer index returns. Early January is also when many investors rebalance after year-end, and megacaps tend to absorb that positioning.
With borrowing costs still a key market driver, traders have been less forgiving of richly valued technology names, where future earnings are worth less when rates rise. That puts extra focus on catalysts that can justify the multiple.
Raymond James resumed coverage of Apple on Friday with a “Market Perform” rating, GuruFocus reported, pointing to valuation and limited near-term upside. “Market Perform” is broker shorthand for expecting a stock to track the overall market rather than beat it, and the firm did not assign a target price, the report said. GuruFocus
After the market close, Apple said in an SEC filing that its board appointed Ben Borders as principal accounting officer effective Jan. 1, as part of a previously announced transition plan. Borders succeeds Chris Kondo, the filing showed.
Apple has also pulled back on Vision Pro headset production and marketing after weak sales, the Guardian reported, citing IDC and Sensor Tower data. IDC estimated only 45,000 units sold in the last quarter of 2025, and the report said Meta Platforms’ Quest headsets command about 80% of the market; Morgan Stanley tech analyst Erik Woodring told the Financial Times that “the cost, form factor and the lack of VisionOS native apps” explain why it “never sold broadly,” according to the Guardian. The Guardian
The stock’s slip came in a mixed tape on Friday, when the Dow and S&P 500 ended higher but the Nasdaq was little changed as chipmakers rallied. Apple and Microsoft weighed on the broader market, Reuters reported.
Before Monday’s open, investors will digest the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing survey for December, due at 10 a.m. ET. The ISM PMI is a survey-based gauge — readings above 50 signal expansion, below 50 contraction.
Later in the week, attention shifts to the Jan. 9 U.S. jobs report and a Jan. 13 inflation update, both closely watched for their impact on Federal Reserve policy. A Reuters poll forecast 55,000 jobs were added in December, and the news agency flagged high valuations as a key reason data surprises could move stocks.
For Apple, the next major catalyst is quarterly results later this month, when investors will look for signals on holiday-quarter demand and margins. Yahoo Finance’s earnings calendar lists Apple as scheduled to report on Jan. 29 after the close, though dates can change.
Technicians are watching whether the shares hold near their 50-day moving average around $273 and stay well above the 200-day average near $244 — gauges many traders use to define short- and long-term trends. The stock’s 52-week high is about $288.62, MarketBeat data show.
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