NEW YORK, June 29, 2026, 04:12 EDT
- Apple traded at $284.34 before the bell after jumping 3.14% on Friday. Volume on Friday came in at 506% of the 65-day average.
- A $100 billion buyback at that premarket price comes out to about 352 million shares, roughly 2.4% of shares outstanding.
- Apple is looking to bring CXMT in as a memory supplier, right as Tencent signs a $2.94 billion DRAM supply agreement with the same Chinese company.
- U.S. regular trading will run Monday. The NYSE says it will close for Independence Day on Friday, July 3.
Apple Inc. NASDAQ:AAPL starts Monday trading facing another hurdle for investors—seeing if its buyback will still help earnings per share as memory costs shift from a supply side problem to one coming out of Washington.
| Apple tape | Latest |
|---|---|
| Premarket quote | $284.34, up 0.20%, as of 4:04 a.m. EDT |
| Friday close | $283.78, up $8.63, up 3.14% |
| Friday range | Traded between $274.21 and $285.95 |
| Friday volume | 261.78 million shares changed hands |
| Volume vs 65-day average | 506% of average |
| 5-day move | Down 4.45% over five sessions |
| 1-month move | Down 7.36% for the month |
| Market cap / P-E | Market value at $4.17 trillion, P-E 34.33 |
Volume tells the story this time. Apple traded at five times its 65-day average turnover on Friday, though the shares had already bounced off a $274.21 low. The stock is still down 4.45% for the week and 7.36% in a month. The recovery hasn’t undone that earlier drop.
Apple’s filings show the other side here. The company picked up 135 million shares for $36.0 billion in the six months through March 28, at an average of $266.67 a share. Apple had $63.8 billion left in its existing buyback plan as of March 28, then announced April 30 its board had cleared another buyback program for up to $100 billion.
| Buyback math | Figure |
|---|---|
| Repurchased over six months through March 28 | 135 million shares |
| Total buyback spending | $36.0 billion |
| Average price per share | $266.67 |
| Friday’s close over buyback average | +6.4% |
| April’s fresh buyback plan | Up to $100 billion |
| Shares at $284.34 each | About 352 million |
| Estimated share count reduction | About 2.4% of 14.69 billion shares |
This is notable since buybacks can support per-share earnings, but Apple is also considering cash to address supply issues. CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal, via Reuters, that Apple was “willing to use our balance sheet to help be a part of the solution” and said, “more capacity is needed.” Cook added Apple had no plans to build memory and storage plants. Reuters
Apple has been pushing the Trump administration for approval to buy memory chips from China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), which sits on a Pentagon blacklist, Reuters said Saturday. The Financial Times said Apple reached out to the Commerce Department over a month ago. Apple, the White House, and CXMT didn’t reply to Reuters’ after-hours requests for comment.
CXMT isn’t just sitting on inventory. Reuters said Monday that CXMT has landed a long-term deal to sell server DRAM to Tencent Holdings HKG:0700, a contract worth more than 20 billion yuan, or $2.94 billion. UBS numbers in the Reuters story showed DRAM contract prices rose almost 95% quarter-on-quarter in Q1. UBS projects the world memory market at $786 billion this year, reaching $1.2 trillion by 2027.
| Supply signal | Data point | Read-through for Apple |
|---|---|---|
| Apple-CXMT lobbying | Washington clearance request | Cheaper supply brings policy overhang |
| Tencent-CXMT deal | Deal tops 20 billion yuan | China cloud demand can soak up domestic DRAM |
| Q1 DRAM contract prices | UBS sees +95% over prior quarter | Device margins still under strain |
| Micron customer deals | $22 billion locked-in orders | Buyers willing to pay for security of supply |
Micron Technology NASDAQ:MU, which supplies memory chips used in NVIDIA NASDAQ:NVDA AI processors, projected quarterly profit and revenue ahead of Wall Street last week. The company also said its customers have locked in $22 billion worth of memory agreements. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in prepared remarks that “DRAM and NAND industry demand continues to significantly exceed industry supply,” with the supply squeeze possibly lasting past 2027. Reuters
Apple has started to pass some costs onto customers. According to The Associated Press, the company bumped up prices on several Macs and iPads. The entry-level MacBook Neo now goes for $699, up from $599. The 512GB MacBook Air is $1,299, up from $1,099, and the 1TB MacBook Pro jumped to $1,999 from $1,699. “We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” Apple said in a statement. AP News
iPhone prices are another risk for the stock. Nabila Popal from IDC told the AP the new price hikes were bigger than she thought, and said the iPhone Pro and Pro Max hikes might hit $200. “I think the days of $50 price increases are over,” Popal said. AP News
The churn story is still the main bull case, not chip prices. Wedbush’s Dan Ives told Business Insider Apple can raise prices and still not drive away many users. Gene Munster at Deepwater Asset Management wrote Apple’s 1.5 billion users are locked in, and even if Apple raises the price of a Mac by $200, that’s just $3.70 per month over the average life.
Apple is trading at 34.33 times earnings, leaving little cushion if demand slips. The company can still use pricing power and stock buybacks to offset some supply issues, but now investors have three factors to watch: unit demand, memory costs, and how many shares are still out.
Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.8% early Monday, according to Barron’s, with the move coming as U.S. indexes stabilize after a five-day tech slide. The NYSE’s calendar confirms U.S. markets will close Friday for Independence Day. The lift in futures hasn’t cleared up the situation in Apple shares. Barron’s
