A rush to buy iPhones before tariffs

Apple (AAPL) delivered solid second-quarter earnings — but you wouldn’t exactly know it from the mood on Wall Street. Despite Apple beating expectations for the fifth straight quarter, investors were less focused on what the company just reported and more on what lies ahead: a turbulent macroeconomic horizon, slowing margins, and a looming $900 million tariff hit.

The elephant in the earnings room wasn’t just softer services revenue or a continued sales slump in China. It was the growing threat of geopolitical fallout — particularly President Donald Trump’s escalating tariff regime, which is forcing Apple into a major supply chain reshuffle.

But amid the rising uncertainty, Apple still showed why it’s built to weather global storms.

The company reported $95.4 billion in revenue on Thursday after the bell — up 5% year-over-year — and earnings of $1.65 per share, up 8%, riding strong demand in the U.S. and parts of Asia. Those figures beat expectations of $94.2 billion in revenue and $1.60 EPS.

Still, the glow was tempered. Services underdelivered, revenue from China remained in decline, and product margins slipped. And with what Wedbush analysts have dubbed the “tariff tornado” circling just ahead of Apple’s expected iPhone 17 launch, the path forward looks anything but simple.

Apple stock was down about 3% in midday trading on Friday. The shares have fallen about 15% so far this year amid the broader selloff in tech stocks.

Here’s what to know.

Tariffs are poised to hit Apple — hard

The biggest concern for Apple is one that’s looming: tariffs.

For the most part, the only thing analysts wanted to ask CEO Tim Cook about on the earnings call was the company’s tariff-related exposure. He said the company saw a “limited impact” from Trump’s levies in the second quarter — but things could get much worse in the third quarter.

Apple, he said, could see an estimated $900 million added to its costs for next quarter — if current global tariff rates, policies, and applications remain the same.

At the moment, there’s a 145% tariff on Chinese imports. Cook said Apple mitigated second-quarter costs by moving a large chunk of its supply chain to India, where 50% of iPhones for the U.S. are currently coming from. Cook said the majority of iPhones for the June quarter will continue to come from India. Vietnam, meanwhile, will be the country of origin for almost all of Apple’s iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, and AirPods sold in the U.S. China will remain the primary country of origin for most non-U.S. product sales.

This strategic pivot could minimize the tariffs’ impact, but analysts remain divided on just how effective the pivot away from China might be. Jefferies analysts estimated that if tariffs go up by 1 percentage point and Apple doesn’t raise product prices, its pre-tax profits for the year could fall by about 1.5 percentage points.

Wedbush analysts, however, raised their price target on Apple stock, citing Apple’s…