🍎 Apple’s biggest quarter ever

Party in Cupertino... home of the world’s most valuable company. Apple had its biggest quarter of sales ever in the three months leading up to Christmas. Despite supply challenges, the Fruit's sales last quarter jumped 11% to an expectation-beating $124B. Sales grew across every product line except iPads (womp). CEO Tim Cook reassured investors by saying supply issues were easing, and Apple shares spiked 5%.

• iPhone sales, which make up more than half of Apple's total, jumped 9% as people upgraded to new 5G models. FYI: It was the first full quarter of iPhone 13 sales.
• Macs saw the strongest sales growth of any Apple hardware, thanks to new $2K Pro models featuring faster Apple-made chips instead of Intel ones.
• Services revenue (think: App Store, Music, iCloud) jumped 25% and was Apple's most profitable unit, helping cancel out losses from supply issues and inflation.

Party in Beijing… Apple also just reclaimed its #1 smartphone-seller spot in China for the first time in six years. iPhones now account for nearly a quarter of phones in the key market. While total smartphone sales in China fell 9% on shortages and sluggish spending, iPhone sales grew 32% in the country of nearly 1.5B people. The iPhone 13, with its “relatively lower starting price” and 5G features, drove growth in “switchers” (like: former Android-ers).

Saweetie ’n’ Sour… Like its Saweetie-inspired sauce, McDonald’s latest earnings were a mixed bag. Sales were sweet: McD’s global revenue reached $23B last year, the highest in six years. Fun fact: Big Mac, McNuggets, and fries were 60% of total sales. Profits were sour: wage hikes + higher prices on everything from patties to paper bags ate into the bottom line. In 2021 McD’s hiked menu prices by 6%. Indulging in McDonald’s could get even pricier this year as the company expects ingredient prices to double.

Smooth like buttered McMuffin… Fast-food chains saw mid-pandemic sales jumps as cooped-up consumers hit drive-thrus to satisfy comfort cravings. McD’s pulled in record sales last quarter thanks to strong demand for Crispy Chicken Sandwiches and the newly revived McRib. But its secret sauce is tapping into consumer trends:

• Celeb-inspired meals from stars like Saweetie, Travis Scott, and BTS have driven sales growth for McD’s. In South Korea, nugget sales tripled after the BTS meal dropped.
• Tok trends: This month, McDonald’s took a cue from TikTok foodies by rolling out social-inspired “menu hacks.” Now, customers can order the Surf + Turf (Filet-O-Fish meets double cheeseburger) by name.
• Digi-dominance: More than a quarter of all sales in McDonald’s top six markets came from its app, delivery, or touch-screen kiosks.

• Jetset: Mastercard’s quarterly profit soared 43% as an uptick in international travel helped cross-border spending exceed pre-pandemic levels. While Omicron is dragging on the travel recovery, Mastercard thinks it’ll be short-lived.
• Bark: Lowe's is opening Petco mini shops in select stores so that shoppers can stock up on dog treats and kitty litter. It’s part of Lowe's effort to grow sales beyond its core home-improvement biz.
• Scrap: Meta is reportedly selling Diem, the group running its Libra cryptocurrency project, to Silvergate Capital for $200M. Meta’s faced regulatory backlash over Diem since it was announced in 2019.
• Fly: Southwest reported a fourth-quarter profit without the help of government aid for the first time in two years. The $68M profit came despite the Omicron surge, which led to thousands of canceled flights.
• SkimK: Kim K’s shapewear company, Skims, is now worth $3.2B — double its April valuation. Skims sales nearly doubled to $275M last year, as celeb brands thrive (Rihanna’s Fenty lingerie brand just raised $125M).

• Earnings expected from: Chevron, Caterpillar, Colgate-Palmolive, and Phillips 66

Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Apple, Twitter, and Starbucks

ID: 2012832