New York, Jan 9, 2026, 09:35 EST — Regular session
- Apple shares down about 0.5% early Friday as tech trading stays uneven
- Apple and JPMorgan said Chase will become the new issuer of Apple Card, with a roughly 24-month transition
- Investors look to Apple’s Jan. 29 results for a read on holiday demand and services growth
Apple Inc shares (AAPL.O) were down 0.5% at $259.04 in early New York trade on Friday, as a Nasdaq-100 proxy slid and the broader market held near flat.
The stock is heading into a dense stretch of catalysts. Apple has a new banking partner lined up for Apple Card, and the iPhone maker’s quarterly results are due later this month — a moment when investors typically re-price the “services” story and any signal on device demand.
That matters now because rate expectations have turned jumpy again, and big tech valuations tend to swing with them. Traders are also watching Washington for any tariff-related headlines that could hit consumer electronics supply chains and costs.
Apple and JPMorgan Chase said on Wednesday that Chase will become the new issuer of Apple Card, keeping Mastercard as the payment network and targeting an “approximately 24 months” transition. “We’re incredibly proud of how Apple Card has transformed the credit card experience,” Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, said, while Chase executive Allison Beer said the partners “share a commitment to supporting consumer financial health.”
The deal is expected to move more than $20 billion of card balances to Chase once completed, and JPMorgan said it expects a $2.2 billion provision for credit losses — money set aside for potential defaults — tied to the forward purchase commitment. Goldman Chief Executive David Solomon framed the exit as a strategic retreat: “This transaction substantially completes the narrowing of our focus in our consumer business,” he said. (Reuters)
A filing on Thursday put some corporate housekeeping back on the radar, too. Apple’s definitive proxy statement showed Chief Executive Tim Cook’s total compensation for 2025 was $74,294,811, and it set the annual shareholder meeting for Feb. 24 in a virtual format. (CloudFront)
Apple fell with other megacap tech names in the prior session, a move that kept the group under pressure even as broader sectors held up better. Alphabet’s shares rose and briefly pushed past Apple in market capitalization for the first time since 2019, Reuters reported. (Reuters)
Friday’s macro tape added another cross-current. U.S. payrolls grew by 50,000 in December and the unemployment rate edged down to 4.4%, while investors also waited for a Supreme Court ruling on Trump-era tariffs that could shift expectations on trade costs. (Reuters)
But the Apple Card handover is a long runway, and it is still subject to regulatory approval. Any stumble in the two-year transition, or a turn in consumer credit quality, could complicate the narrative that Apple’s services business can smooth out hardware cycles.
Next up is earnings. Apple’s conference call for fiscal first-quarter results is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 29 at 2:00 p.m. PT / 5:00 p.m. ET, when investors will be listening for a clean read on holiday-quarter iPhone demand, services growth and margins — and any early color on the Chase transition. (Apple)
