Sales of Apple Inc. smartphones will be high during the Christmas period and will reach a record high in fiscal year 2025, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives predicts.
Ives believes that hundreds of millions of people around the world will upgrade their iPhones to the latest model with built-in AI functions in the coming months. According to his estimates, almost 300 million iPhone owners have not updated their smartphones in the last four years or more.
According to the analyst’s forecast, sales of new iPhones in the current fiscal year, which will end in September, will reach a record 240 million units. The consensus forecast of experts surveyed by FactSet suggests that this figure will be 207.6 million iPhones, Market Watch writes.
“We believe that the success of iPhone 16 sales this holiday season will be the beginning of a revival in Apple’s growth over the next 12-18 months, given the current quarter,” Ives said in a note to clients.
The AI features of the new iPhones are not yet available in China and many other countries, but they may be launched in April, Ives said. At the same time, the company can name its new technology partner in China.
The expert estimates that almost 100 million iPhones in China may be updated this year.
Ives is confident that Apple will become the first company to exceed $4 trillion in capitalization, and he expects this to happen in early 2025. Currently, Apple’s market value is $3.86 trillion, up 32.6% since the beginning of this year. The company’s shares rose 0.1% in pre-market trading on Tuesday to $255.6.
Ives reiterated an “outperform” recommendation for Apple shares and a $300 price target.
On December 24, Zaporizhzhia utility Zapoprozhelektrotrans announced a tender for compulsory insurance of civil liability of owners of land vehicles, according to the Prozorro electronic public procurement system.
The expected cost of the services is UAH 423.3 thousand.
The tender proposal is not required to be secured.
The deadline for submitting bids is January 1.
As reported, the winner of a similar tender a year earlier was VUSO Insurance Company.
Ukraine has received $1 billion from Japan and the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“The tranche was received under the guarantees of the governments of these countries under the World Bank’s DPL program,” Shmyhal wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to him, the funds will be used to strengthen the Ukrainian economy and finance priority expenditures in the social and humanitarian spheres.
About 2 million artillery shells will be produced in the EU in 2025, the newly appointed European Commissioner for Defense and Space, Andrius Kubilius, told Hromadske.
Answering a question about whether Europe has enough production capacity to increase military aid to Ukraine, the official noted that only 20-25% of weapons are produced in the EU, and the rest are bought abroad. According to Kubilius, increasing arms production in the EU requires orders from European governments, which are lacking, and without long-term contracts with arms manufacturers, Europe should not be expected to produce more weapons and ammunition for Ukraine in the coming years.
“Money from the EU budget cannot be used to purchase weapons for Ukraine. There are a number of restrictions on investment in the defense industry outside the EU. However, money from the European Peace Fund or frozen Russian assets can be used to purchase weapons,” the European Commissioner said.
At the same time, Kubilius explains, next year Ukraine will receive about EUR 30 billion from the EU and will decide how much of this amount to use for defense purposes. The EU is currently implementing a new mechanism to integrate the Ukrainian military-industrial complex into the European defense industry.
The final communiqué of the EU summit held on December 18-19 emphasizes that the European Council “plans to intensify its efforts to further support and develop Ukraine’s defense industry and deepen its cooperation with the EU defense industry.”
One of the largest grain market operators in Ukraine, Nibulon JV LLC, intends to focus on systematic demining of agricultural land and waterways in 2025, the agricultural holding’s press service reported on Facebook.
“First of all, we are going to work with the authorities to develop a new approach to creating arrays of plots for all stages of land clearance: from non-technical surveys to mechanized and manual demining. In addition, together with the demining community, we are working to improve mine action processes and increase the availability of technical inspection equipment, etc. All of this will make the demining process faster, more efficient and more accessible for Ukraine,” said Mykhailo Rizak, Director of Government Relations.
“Nibulon is also planning to expand the certification of its demining unit to a full cycle, including explosive ordnance disposal and underwater demining.
“We continue to invest in development and are ready to provide services to everyone,” said Rizak.
He emphasized that Nibulon is ready to continue demining Ukrainian agricultural land and waterways, but would like to receive the government support it has already earned.
“We draw the state’s attention to the fact that we have not yet received reimbursement for the demining projects we have already implemented,” he stated.
Nibulon JV LLC was established in 1991. Prior to the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and crop reception complexes, capacity for simultaneous storage of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugs), and owned the Mykolaiv Shipyard.
“Before the war, Nibulon cultivated 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries. In 2021, the grain trader exported the highest ever 5.64 million tons of agricultural products, reaching record volumes of supplies to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons, and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Nibulon’s losses due to Russia’s full-scale military invasion in 2022 exceeded $416 million.
Currently, the grain trader is operating at 32% of capacity, has created a special unit to clear agricultural land of mines, and was forced to move its headquarters from Mykolaiv to Kyiv.
More than half of the respondents plan to close because of old-new taxes
Opendatabot has conducted the largest study of the status and plans of individual entrepreneurs in Ukraine. Almost 32 thousand entrepreneurs took part in the survey. 27% of respondents plan to close in the near future. More than half of these businesses stop working due to a sharp increase in the tax burden. In December, 2 entrepreneurs closed for every 1 open business. For comparison, a year ago the situation was completely opposite: 4 new entrepreneurs accounted for 1 closure.
Opendatabot conducted a large-scale survey of Ukrainian entrepreneurs to find out what small and medium-sized businesses plan to do in the near future. The survey involved 31,694 respondents who said they were working as sole proprietors.
27% or 8621 surveyed entrepreneurs plan to close their business in the near future. 2297 or 7% planned to close this year. Another 20%, or 6324 participants, said they planned to stop their business next year.
More than half of those who plan to close – namely 62% – decided to close because of tax increases. Another 19% of entrepreneurs are shutting down due to business problems. It is worth noting that currently, due to a large-scale attack by pro-Russian hackers on state registries, closing a business is either very difficult or impossible.
The majority of the surveyed entrepreneurs work in retail (24.6%), and another 21% work in IT.
Since the law on the introduction of the military tax for small and medium-sized businesses was signed, 2 new businesses have closed for every 1 new one. Thus, 24,497 entrepreneurs ceased operations between the time the President signed the law and December 17. During the same period, 2.2 times fewer new businesses were opened: 10 947. For comparison, in the same period last year, 4 new fops accounted for only 1 closing.
Opendatabot asked the Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmantsev for a comment. However, at the time of publication, we did not receive a response.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/fops-pool-result
closure of individual entrepreneurs, Individual entrepreneurs
