Tim Cook and John Tarnas at Apple Park.
Provided by: Apple
Hello, my name is Hui Jie from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
Apple is turning the page as CEO Tim Cook hands over the reins to his successor, John Ternas, marking the company’s second leadership change since Steve Jobs.
Meanwhile, the market appears ready to exit the Iran conflict. But that’s not the case with US President Donald Trump.
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What you need to know today
From bending the first iPod nano (with a click wheel!) at a 2009 rally to today’s iPhone ecosystem, Apple’s evolution has spanned generations. The company is now preparing for a new transition at the top with the appointment of its eighth CEO.
Fifteen years after Tim Cook took over the reins from Steve Jobs, Apple is undergoing a new transformation. John Ternus, senior vice president of hardware engineering, will become CEO on September 1, and Cook will assume the role of executive chairman.
In the words of Isaac Newton, apple legends aside, Ternas will be standing on the shoulders of giants when he takes the helm.
Meanwhile, the market showed signs of fatigue. Major US indexes fell, with the Nasdaq Composite index ending its 13-day winning streak.
Some may attribute this to the Iran war, but David Wagner, head of equities and portfolio manager at Aptas Capital Advisors, suggested that the war is “now in the market’s rearview mirror,” a view echoed by CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
But one person still appears to have war on Iran: US President Donald Trump.
President Trump continued to threaten Iran on Monday, saying “a bunch of bombs are going to start going off” if a deal isn’t reached before the fragile ceasefire with Tehran expires Tuesday night.
The remarks came as the US delegation prepares to return to Pakistan for a possible second round of peace talks. A person familiar with the matter told CNBC that the delegation “is planning to go to Islamabad soon.”
Back at home, the president’s woes continue as his administration rolls out a portal to file tariff claims related to about $160 billion in refunds after the Supreme Court struck down the foundations of Trump’s trade policies.
And finally…
Hormuz turmoil hits China’s Christmas capital and holiday spending
There are still eight months until Christmas, but Chinese Christmas decoration makers are already worried that the Iran war will spoil the holiday season.
“Many customers are holding off on orders,” one artificial tree manufacturer told CNBC last Friday at his showroom at the International Expo Center in Yiwu, known as China’s Christmas capital.
U.S. shoppers will be forced to pay at least 15% more, he said. “The price of Christmas trees in the U.S. will definitely go up,” she says. It’s inevitable.
