Apple’s suppliers tumbled in early trading on Thursday, as markets digested Apple’s announcement last night that it was cutting its revenue forecasts for the first time in two decades. Overnight, shares in Hong Kong-listed AAC Technologies and Sunny Optical took a beating, putting them among the worst performers on the Hang Seng. European suppliers STMicroelectronics and AMS followed the Asian stocks lower, with the latter losing around a fifth of its value this morning. Shares in Reading-based Dialog Semiconductor were down as much as 10pc, bringing further tumult to a company which last year was racked by rumours Apple may ditch its chips. It had seemed there was some respite for Dialog last October, when Apple agreed to buy a portion of the company and to enter into new supply deals with it, although the latest Apple announcement appears to signal further pressure ahead. The declines across Asia and Europe looked set to continue into US trading, with the Nasdaq futures falling by around 3pc. S&P; 500 futures were down around 1.7pc. Every iPhone ranked: from worst to best In a rare statement, issued late on Wednesday, Apple had said its iPhone sales for the final months of 2018 were well below expectations, and that it was now expecting to post revenues of $84bn (£67bn) for the three months to December 29. It had previously been expecting this figure to be between $89bn and $91bn. Mirabaud analyst Neil Campling said the market could expect a flurry of warnings to follow Apple’s release. “The last Apple guidance in November saw a plethora of supply chain companies come out and follow suit in the following couple of weeks. You can expect more of the same this January,” he said. Chief executive Tim Cook had blamed the slowdown on trade tensions between the US and China, although also suggested disappointing numbers of people upgrading their smartphone may be behind the cut in guidance. It comes amid mounting concerns that the smartphone market has become too saturated in many regions. Apple’s decision in November to no longer split out how many iPhones, iPads and Macs it sells every quarter was seen by many as an indication that iPhone sales were slumping. Mr Cook is expected to give further details to employees at a town hall meeting later today.
