New York, March 3, 2026, 10:13 AM (ET) — Regular session underway
- Apple dropped close to 1%, caught in a tech-heavy slide that intensified as energy prices climbed.
- Apple has introduced refreshed MacBooks along with the iPhone 17e, its new budget model that comes with increased base storage.
- Traders zero in on March 4 preorders, with Friday’s U.S. jobs report also on the radar.
Apple shares slipped 0.9% to $262.44 in Tuesday morning trading, deepening a decline seen across major tech names. The stock most recently traded $2.28 lower than Monday’s close.
Apple’s push comes as it tries to spark upgrades with a slate of new hardware—while holding the line on pricing. Investors are watching closely to see if bigger base storage and fresh chips are enough to drive unit growth, especially as component expenses tick higher.
Pressure hit other megacaps, too. Microsoft slipped 0.8%, while Alphabet gave up 2.2%. Amazon shed 2.1%, and Nvidia lost roughly 2%.
Apple rolled out refreshed MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lines Tuesday, fitting them with the new M5-series chips and bumping up base storage to attract buyers in a flagging PC market. The 13-inch MacBook Air launches at $1,099, now packing 512GB of storage. As for the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro, it’s priced from $2,199 and ships standard with 1TB. That’s according to Reuters.
Apple’s Mac reveals come right after Monday’s rollout of the iPhone 17e, a lower-cost handset priced from $599 with 256GB onboard. There’s also the new-look iPad Air, running on an M4 chip. According to Reuters, Apple is pitching the increased storage as a better deal, even with memory-chip prices rising in a tight global market. Preorders for the iPhone 17e kick off Wednesday, and shipments start March 11. Reuters
Apple pressed its value message in the rollout, too. “iPhone 17e combines powerful performance and features our users love at an exceptional value,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing. apple.com
Barclays nudged its Apple price target up to $248 from $239, but didn’t budge from its “underweight” rating, signaling ongoing valuation concerns. That’s straight from a note cited by TheFly, flagging the risk that the stock may trail the broader market. TipRanks
Pain ran deeper than just Apple. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF slid roughly 2%. Invesco QQQ, which tracks the tech-heavy Nasdaq, dropped close to 2% as well.
Energy led the move. Brent crude surged roughly 7%, trading near $83 a barrel after reaching a 19-month peak. Tensions flared around the Strait of Hormuz as the conflict involving the U.S., Israel, and Iran intensified, stoking supply disruption fears, according to Reuters. Reuters
Investors are looking past the geopolitics and seeing a short-term inflation jolt from the oil shock. “It feels like the market is interpreting this as much more of an inflationary shock than a growth shock,” said George Moran, European macro strategist at RBC Capital Markets, in comments to Reuters. Reuters
AI continues to make headlines this week. The Information says Apple approached Google about installing servers inside its own data centers, aiming to run a Gemini-powered Siri that would comply with Apple’s privacy requirements, The Verge reports. The Verge
Still, there’s a catch for those hoping a product refresh will juice demand: stretched upgrade cycles might persist, particularly if rising storage and component prices stick around. Add another jump in energy costs to the mix, and pricey tech stocks like Apple could stay under pressure, even with a smooth launch.
Eyes shift now to iPhone 17e preorder numbers coming in Wednesday. Then it’s Friday’s U.S. jobs data at 8:30 a.m. ET. bls.gov
