Apple stages sharpest rally in 9 months as execs cite iPhone, Mac demand in boosting guidance

apple shares jumped more than 4% on thursday, heading for the sharpest rally since august. the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and issued revenue guidance for the current period that sailed past analysts' estimates. ceo tim cook, who is preparing to step down in september after 15 years, touted performance despite supply constraints from the global memory crunch. apple said revenue in the fiscal third quarter, ending june, will increase between 14% and 17% from a year earlier. analysts were projecting growth of 9.5%. cook called the iphone 17 family the "most popular lineup in our history" and said demand for the new macbook neo, released in march, "has just been off the charts." for the fiscal second quarter, revenue climbed 17% to $111.18 billion from $95.4 billion a year ago, beating the $109.66 billion estimate. apple topped estimates for mac, ipad and services revenue but came up short on iphone sales. services revenue rose about 16% to $30.98 billion. gross margin reached 49.3%, up from 48.2% in the previous period. for june, apple guided gross margin between 47.5% and 48.5%.