Apple Stocks Drop After Releasing iPhone 16: What’s Happening?

While the world was watching the Apple announcement, including the new iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods, investors had their eyes glued to their portfolios, watching the unreliable AAPL price movement.

Apple stocks have a history of unpredictable fluctuations following major releases, such as new devices or introducing new service updates. This time, Apple shareholders suffered a 1% loss in their portfolios following the somewhat underwhelming presentation of the new iPhone 16 lineup.

Let’s review what happened and why Apple stocks fell after such events.

Apple Event

On Monday, September 9th, Apple released the latest lineup of devices, including a new iPhone 16 (Plus, Pro, and Pro Max), Apple Watch Series 10, Apple Watch Ultra 2, AirPods 4, and the most anticipated, a unique Apple Intelligence feature.

The release did not carry distinguished exterior designs but introduced new battery and performance features, while the AI feature will be added one month later.

The company built the hype before Monday’s presentation with words like “the best iPhone battery life ever” and introducing new color lines. However, it did not maintain the same hype on the trading boards.

Apple Stock Performance

For the past few years, Apple’s stock performance has been highly unpredictable around any major event. After growing consistently this year, especially between Q2 and Q3, shares trembled slightly on September 9th, just as the latest iPhone 16 was released.

Prices jumped from $165 to $235 between April and July 2024, marking a 42% growth in four months.

Apple Share Price Response

AAPL price started the day at $220 but slummed a few hours as the event kicked off, reaching as low as $216 on the same day, which is just below 2%. Price correction was estimated in the few hours following this drop, with an unpredictable projectile in the few coming days.

Why Did Apple Stocks Drop?

Price drops after such introductions are occasional, despite the theoretical expectations that anticipation should bring more interest and more upward trends. Here’s why Apple prices went volatile.

• Apple constantly increases expectations with flashy words and teasers, but when the expectations are not met (at least from an aesthetic point of view), the audience and traders get frustrated.
• Shareholders tend to sell off their holdings as the price reaches momentum before the announcement to capitalize on higher price gains.
• Natural market dynamics, as seasonal speculations before the event, will automatically retract, and the price will correct itself.

Conclusion

In a classic fashion, Apple stocks dropped slightly after the company announced the latest lineup of mobile phones, headphones, smartwatches, and AI features.

Despite the high speculations before the event, the frustration of “no significant design changes” was present, and Apple’s stock price took a temporary slip that exceeded 1%.