Apple shares fell 3.8% in afternoon trading after reports surfaced that the company may be facing significant engineering delays on its foldable iPhone, a setback that could push the launch of the iPhone Fold into 2027. The stock moved lower even as investors tried to weigh the product news against broader market pressure tied to rising geopolitical tension and surging oil prices.
The decline came after Nikkei Asia reported that technical problems in early testing could delay the foldable device, while Evercore ISI said App Store growth slowed in March, especially in gaming. For a company that has only seen three moves larger than 5% over the past year, the drop stood out. Apple was last at $250.28 a share, down 7.7% this year and 12.5% below its 52-week high of $286.19 set in December 2025.
Apple has been trying to convince investors that the next wave of products and services can keep its growth story intact, but that story keeps running into policy risk and execution risk at the same time. About 12 months ago, the shares gained 6.5% after reports that smartphones, computers and many tech devices and components would be exempt from reciprocal tariffs announced on April 2, 2025, a list that included chips, solar panels, flat-screen TVs, flash drives and memory cards. That relief now looks temporary. President Trump said new tariffs on devices such as iPhones and tablets could come very soon, adding that they remained subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also said the current exemptions were not permanent.
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The tariff threat landed as Trump set a strict deadline over the Strait of Hormuz, a move that helped push oil prices higher and fed the wider risk-off tone in the market. Apple’s latest slide was therefore not just about one delayed product. It reflected the combination of a slower App Store, a more fragile consumer electronics outlook and renewed policy pressure on a company that still depends heavily on the apple iphone franchise. That leaves investors watching two things at once: whether the foldable project can recover from early testing setbacks, and whether Washington turns the current tariff warning into something far more costly for Apple and its suppliers. An investor who put $1,000 into Apple five years ago would now have about $1,957, but the market is signaling that the next stretch may hinge less on past gains than on whether the company can keep its product pipeline on schedule.
