🍏 At your Services

When you think of the company that Steve Jobs founded some 50 years ago, your mind likely first arrives at the various devices that have truly revolutionized the way we live in the modern world, of which the company now says there are 2.5 billion in active use globally.

However, Apple’s Services division — often the source of those just-small-enough-to-dismiss transactions that leave your account each month, with various cloud and content subscription payments tacked on to give users the full run of Apple’s walled garden — has become a huge part of the pie, with revenues reaching yet another record in the company’s fourth quarter.

In Q4, sales from Services reached a whopping $31.57 billion, up some 9.8% from the same period last year. While that might have snapped a double-digit growth streak that had run for 12 quarters in a row, as analysts quoted by Variety observed, it still means that Apple offerings such as TV+, Music, Pay, Podcasts, News+, and others are raking in more than $13 billion more each quarter than they were five years ago.

The difference between how much profit Services takes in compared to Apple’s main cash cow, the Products segment, also speaks for itself: The cost of sales on the whopping $82.9 billion that Products brought in for Q4 was $52.1 billion, while the Services segment's cost of sales for the same period was just $7.6 billion.

The Takeaway 

While slowing growth and the unending popularity of Apple’s devices — the company this week said it’s unsure whether it will be able to get more iPhone Duos in by the all-important Christmas trading period, after the $2,000 foldables sold out in a matter of weeks — might mean Services will never catch up to Products in the amount of cash they generate for the company, the profit race between the two has been getting more interesting. 

— Thomas Jones

Yum! Brands yesterday reported its last quarter to include which storied restaurant chain, having sold off the last of the brand to LongRange Capital in September? [Answer below].

Answer here.

• Election: It’s the topic on everyone’s mind, ballots have been cast, and weeks of effort are soon culminating in a decisive and definitive ending. Contender quality has been an issue, but this hard fought contest that has dominated America’s airwaves is coming to a close shortly as votes pour in. I refer, of course, to “Dancing with the Stars,” where Ezra Frech is a 58% favorite to win this season, according to markets. 

• OK, Fine The Other One: Thanks to a few late races we’re still not exactly sure of plenty of individual outcomes here, but you can follow the latest market pricing of the House margin of victory here. 

*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC, ForecastEX, LLC or Rothera Exchange and Clearing LLC.

That’s the share of Americans who say they’re giving “quite a lot of thought” to yesterday’s Congressional elections, per a Gallup survey from earlier this year.

While a little over half may seem surprisingly low to some of our more politically-minded readers, it’s actually a record high for this point in the election cycle; up from just 49% from 2022 and 1% higher than the share who were saying the same during the 2010 midterms. 

• Uber, Datadog, Circle, McDonald’s, Hut 8, Riot Platforms, CVS, Kraft Heinz, and Wayfair scheduled to release earnings ahead of the open.

• US Treasury slated to deliver its quarterly refunding announcement at 8:30 a.m. ET.

• Postmarket earnings due out from Qualcomm, Coherent, Snap, AMC, AppLovin, Expedia, Figma, Fastly, Cava, TKO, Wolfspeed, Joby Aviation, Beyond, and elf Beauty.