Apple stock retreat – red flags waving in the wind

Markets roundup

European Markets had no direction on Monday, as market watchers focused on guidelines for Brexit negotiations, issued earlier today by the Council of the European Union. The United Kingdom was offered "status quo transition without institutional representation" until the end of 2020. Meanwhile, EU's chief negotiator for Brexit Michel Barnier emphasized that the integrity of the single market is non-negotiable.

The FTSE 100 increased 0.10% at the closing bell, with Glencore being the best performer, ending the day with a 3.35% increase. The DAX fell 0.12% as today's session ended, with Commerzbank AG leading the losses with 2.06% drop, following news of the possible sale of its EMC division. The CAC 40 finished 0.14 % lower. Luxury group Kering saw a decrease of 1.72%, amid reports of alleged tax evasion.

Apple shares tumble and an update in the pipeline

Apple tumbled as much as 2.38% to hit the weakest spot since December 6 following an unconfirmed report saying it halved iPhone X orders for the current quarter. The company planned to trim its iPhone X production target to 20 million for the March quarter, half of what it expected a few months ago. The phone's price tag of at least $999 could be a key reason for the demand issues.

Meanwhile the company announced an update on its newest version of its mobile operating system known as iOS 11, with the new updated to iOS 11.3. iOS 11.3 will include an updated version of the company's ARKit, a suite of software development tools designed to make developing augmented reality (AR) easier. This new ARKit will apparently be able to "recognize and place virtual objects on vertical surfaces" as well as the ability to "find and recognize the position of 2D images" and then place those images properly in augmented reality applications.

Furthermore, iOS 11.3 is also expected to include additional Animoji, which are emoji that can take on the facial expressions of the user, through the iPhone X's depth-sensing True Depth Camera and the Apple Neural Engine embedded in Apple's A11 processor. Apple says that iOS 11.3 includes four new Animoji, bringing the total number of Animoji supported by the operating system to 16.

Somewhat related to that, Apple also says that it's adding a feature called Business Chat to its Messages app, which allows users "to communicate directly with businesses right within Messages."