Ammon News - Apple shares rose 2% on Friday after a rosy forecast fuelled hopes of an iPhone sales rebound, even as tough competition and a lack of AI features weigh on demand in key market China.

Already the world's most valuable company, Apple is set to add more than $81 billion to its market value of $3.573 trillion, if the gains hold.

Apple, which has been grappling with investor worries over iPhone demand due to a slow rollout of its AI-powered Apple Intelligence features, expects revenue to rise in the low- to mid-single digit percentage range in the current quarter.

The forecast suggested demand was picking up for the iPhone 16 series that was launched in September without most of the Apple Intelligence features but updates in recent months added services including ChatGPT integration. Reuters