Apple Inc. reported worse-than-expected sales in China and warned that tariffs will increase costs this quarter, a sign that geopolitical tensions are taking a growing toll on the world’s most valuable company.
Apple expects $900 million in higher costs from tariffs in the current period, the company said during a conference call to discuss quarterly results. Revenue will increase by a percentage in the low-to-mid single digits in the quarter, Apple added. Analysts have estimated 5% on average.
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Sales from China, meanwhile, fell 2.3% to $16 billion in the fiscal second quarter, which ended March 29. Analysts had predicted $16.83 billion.
That shortfall is an ominous sign for what was once a growth market. Apple has lost ground to local phone brands, such as Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo, and the government there has banned foreign-made technology from some workplaces. Apple’s China-centric production also makes it especially vulnerable to tariffs announced by the Trump administration.
Despite these challenges, analysts remained optimistic about McDonald’s outlook. Indeed, TD Cowen noted that the company plans to open 2,200 new restaurants in 2025, which is expected to contribute over 2% to overall sales growth.
Interestingly, although McDonald’s management talked about the economic pressures on mid-income consumers and was cautious about the consumers' overall health, analysts at Evercore ISI pointed out that there was a positive shift in U.S. sales trends.
In fact, after a difficult start to the quarter, U.S. sales improved in March and accelerated further in April, partly due to the Minecraft movie deal. Evercore believes this momentum will continue and will lead to higher customer traffic and larger spending per visit.
Nearly half of all layoffs so far in 2025 have been driven by cuts related to the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) efforts to slash government funding and reduce the size of the federal workforce, according to a new report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
The report shows that “DOGE Actions” led to 283,172 job cuts in the first four months of 2025, and “DOGE Downstream Impact” was cited as the reason for another 6,945 job losses, which the report indicates largely come from non-profits and education organizations.
Together, that accounts for 48 percent of all job cuts announced so far this year.
The vast majority of job cuts related to “DOGE Actions” occurred in March, which saw 216,670 positions cut. Government job cuts last month also accounted for the vast majority of layoffs across all sectors, which totaled 275,240 in March.
In April, job cuts attributed to DOGE plummeted, with just 2,919 announced cuts attributed to the government cost-cutting initiative spearheaded by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
But April still saw a high number of job cuts — 105,441 — the highest level since April 2020, which was the highest month ever recorded by the outplacement firm, which began reporting on job cuts in 1989.
Reasons given for April cuts include “Market/Economic Conditions” tariffs, and restructuring.
“Though the Government cuts are front and center, we saw job cuts across sectors last month. Generally, companies are citing the economy and new technology,” said Andrew Challenger, the firm’s senior vice president. “Employers are slow to hire and limiting hiring plans as they wait and see what will happen with trade, supply chain, and consumer spending.”
Gross domestic product shrank during the first quarter of 2025 as a surge of imports ahead of President Trump’s tariffs, which he announced in March and later delayed for 90 days, hit economic growth calculations.