Flash Briefing: Apple shares jump 6% after poor 4Q; Gold keeps rising; May sent back to Brussels

By Alec Hogg.In today's global headlines:.___STEADY_PAYWALL___.After the markets closed last night, Apple Inc confirmed its widely telegraphed reverse during the three months to end December – its first quarterly decline in sales and profit for more than a decade. Revenue of $84bn was 4.5% below the December 2017 quarter and profit, at $20bn, was down fractionally. The reverse was the result of iPhone sales falling 15%, mainly due to increased competition in China. In after-hours trading, however, Apple's share price rose almost 6% to $163 a share as the market took heart from CEO Tim Cook's statement that "macroeconomic factors will come and go, but we see great upside in continuing to focus on the things that we can control."The UK's Brexit drama took a new twist yesterday when British Parliamentarians voted to send prime minister Theresa May back to Brussels to try negotiate a new divorce settlement. The treaty which took Mrs May two years to negotiate with the EU was heavily rejected earlier this month. The major change is a proposed change to the so-called backstop arrangement in Ireland. After the votes, Sterling fell from a recent 10 week high on optimism that a no-deal Brexit would be avoided. In Davos, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said even in the best-case scenario, Brexit will result in the UK economy contracting by the equivalent of 8% of its GDP over the next few years.Brazilian iron ore miner Vale has promised to dismantle 10 lookalike slime dams as the fallout from the Friday's disaster continues. The death toll from the collapse, Vale's second in three years, has risen to 84 with almost 300 more people unaccounted for. The company says it will halt 40 million tons of production, 10% of its total, while it speeds up efforts to get rid of mining waste dams like the one near Brumadinho in rural Brazil. Vale's share price has fallen 23% since the disaster, wiping more than $50bn off its market capitalisation.In South African related news, the gold price rose to its highest in eight months overnight, touching $1,315 an ounce ahead of today's US Federal Reserve news conference. This will be Fed chairman Jerome Powell's first public meeting of the year where he will provide insight on interest rate setting policy. Gold bugs have been heartened by speculation that there will fewer US rate hikes this year to offset slower global economic growth, hit by the US China trade war. Chinese vice premier Liu He and US trade advisor Robert Lighthizer start two days of meetings aimed at breaking the deadlock.

Flash Briefing: Apple shares jump 6% after poor 4Q; Gold keeps rising; May sent back to Brussels

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