Apple

Apple just posted its best June quarter ever, pulling in 109.4 billion dollars in 90 days, up 16 percent from last year. iPhone did 54.3 billion, Mac jumped 29 percent, and Services set another record at 30.7 billion. Profit grew even faster than sales, with earnings per share up 29 percent.

Every single region grew by double digits, including Greater China, which climbed 22 percent to 18.8 billion dollars after a rough stretch. Apple also generated 117 billion dollars in cash from operations over the last nine months, up from 82 billion a year ago. That is a mountain of cash funding buybacks, dividends, and the new Siri AI push.

A chunk of this quarter's profit came from tariff refunds, which added about 2 points to gross margin and 11 cents to earnings per share. Strip that out and the picture is still good, just less spectacular. Trade policy can swing the other way just as quickly, and Apple still builds most of its products overseas.

iPad sales fell to 6.2 billion dollars, down about 6 percent from a year ago, and it is the one major category going backwards. Apple is also spending far more to keep up in AI, with research costs up 32 percent to 11.7 billion for the quarter. If the new Siri does not win people over, that spending hits profits without much to show for it.