NVIDIA (NVDA) can step aside for now. Retail investors are rekindling their affection for Apple (AAPL) stock. The latest data from Vanda Research shows that on Tuesday, retail investors were net buyers of $65.3 million worth of Apple shares, marking the highest single-day net purchase volume since June 2025. "In the big picture: retail capital is rotating within the large-cap tech sector, with Apple becoming the latest firm conviction buy," stated strategists at Vanda Research. According to Vanda's data, recent inflows from retail investors into mega-cap tech stocks have slowed, particularly for NVIDIA, Microsoft (MSFT), and Meta Platforms (META). Investors have shifted towards the war-impacted oil sector, and Apple has not been immune to the market volatility. Apple reported its best-ever quarterly earnings in January of this year. However, over the past month, its stock price has struggled to gain solid footing, affected by geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran and concerns over tariffs. Over the past month, Apple's stock performance has largely moved in line with the S&P 500 index, gaining approximately 0.3%; year-to-date, it is down 5%. But investors may be starting to see several potential positive catalysts on the horizon for Apple, with the most attention focused on a new form factor for its iconic product, the iPhone. In early April 2026, reports emerged that Apple's first foldable device, likely to be named iPhone Fold or iPhone Ultra, had officially entered the trial production phase at Foxconn. The device is expected to feature a book-style foldable design, with a 5.5-inch external screen and a 7.8-inch internal display when unfolded. Although Nikkei Asia had previously reported delays in engineering progress, Bloomberg reported that the model remains on schedule for a September 2026 launch. "Our continued checks suggest the project is progressing well, and while mass production for the next-generation phone might not ramp until June or July, we currently believe the foldable phone will still launch as expected in September 2026," said Amit Daryanani, an analyst at Evercore ISI, in a report. Daryanani maintained an "Outperform" rating on Apple with a price target of $330. Simultaneously, Apple is undergoing a management restructuring led by its Vice President of Artificial Intelligence, Amar Subrahmanya, with the team preparing for a major AI overhaul of Siri, planned for launch later in 2026. The combination of the new model and the upgraded Siri is expected to drive a strong product upgrade cycle. In January of this year, Apple signed a multi-year agreement with Alphabet to integrate the Gemini large language model into Apple's intelligent systems and Siri. Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, stated that Apple is expected to announce details regarding the Gemini integration at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, alongside new developer tools designed to simplify the process of integrating AI features.
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