Apple Inc.'s weekly stock gain wasn't too much to write home about in the absolute, but it was good enough to be the largest in the Dow Jones Industrial Average during a down period for the broader market amid geopolitical and interest-rate concerns.
Shares of Apple $(AAPL)$ climbed 4.1% on the week to beat out Nike Inc., the next-biggest gainer in the Dow DJIA with a 3.6% rally. Beyond those two stocks, no others saw weekly increases upwards of 1%, while the Dow on the whole fell 2.4% to record its biggest weekly percentage decline since March 2023.
Apple's placement atop the weekly Dow leaderboard is notable as the stock hadn't been the index's top such gainer since Nov. 10, 2023, when it closed out the week up 5.5%, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The feat is also significant as Apple shares have faced negative sentiment to start the year in the face of heightened competition in China, pressures on consumer spending and swirling regulatory risk.
A BofA Securities analyst on Thursday suggested that Apple skeptics once again may be looking at the stock's potential all wrong.
"Investors have historically underestimated Apple's gross margins and it appears that it is happening again," BofA's Wamsi Mohan wrote. He offered that Apple has various gross-margin drivers, including benefits from insourced chips and consumers' increasing preference for higher-priced iPhone models that are more profitable.
Market researcher IDC also offered what could be perceived as good news for Apple on Monday when it put out its first-quarter shipment numbers showing a 14.8% jump for Macs in the March period. That was Apple's largest growth in Mac shipments in at least two years, the third-party researcher's data showed, though it came against an easy comparison.
Bloomberg News reported Thursday that Apple is planning to jolt its Mac lineup with an upgraded version of its custom-designed processor.