Hello, this is Hui Jie writing to you from Singapore, while Leonie is away preparing for CNBC’s CONVERGE LIVE event, featuring names like former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and Capital Group CEO Mike Gitlin.
Apple sees its second leadership change since Steve Jobs, with CEO Tim Cook set to be succeeded by John Ternus to lead the world’s second most valuable company.
Geopolitical tensions continue to simmer in Iran, with Iranian officials and U.S. President Donald Trump exchanging threats as a ceasefire deadline looms.
Enjoy!
What you need to know today
Apple‘s CEO Tim Cook has found the new apple of his eye, if you pardon the pun.
From September 1, senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus will take over the reins from Cook, while Cook will be appointed Apple’s executive chairman.
Ternus will have huge shoes to fill: under Cook’s watch, Apple has grown more than 20 times in terms of market cap.
Away from the tech world, U.S. markets dipped and Asian markets were mixed as geopolitical tensions continued to simmer. South Korea’s Kospi was a notable outlier, having hit a record high on Tuesday.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, appeared to up the ante in a social media post on Tuesday, criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump for “imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire,” and for seeking to turn the negotiation into “a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering.”
Trump, for his part, continues his saber rattling on Iran, threatening Iran with overwhelming military force, saying “lots of bombs [will] start going off” if no deal is reached before a shaky ceasefire with Tehran expires on a revised Wednesday evening deadline.
His rhetoric stands in sharp contrast to news that a U.S. delegation is gearing up to travel back to Pakistan for a potential second round of peace talks. The delegation “plans to travel to Islamabad soon,” a source familiar with the matter told CNBC.
However, some analysts are suggesting the market may have put the Iran conflict behind it, including CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
Oil prices declined Tuesday during Asia hours, with West Texas Intermediate futures for May delivery losing 1.85% to $87.95 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude futures for June delivery slid 1.1% to $94.41 per barrel.
Stateside, the Trump administration rolled out a tariff claims-filing portal tied to roughly $160 billion in refunds, after the Supreme Court struck down a cornerstone of Trump’s trade policy.
— Lim Hui Jie
And finally…
Nvidia supplier Victory Giant sees shares soar 60% in Hong Kong debut
Shares in Victory Giant Technology surged as much as 60% on Tuesday, after the Chinese company’s blockbuster initial public offering — the biggest in Hong Kong this year.
The Chinese company, which supplies printed circuit boards to Nvidia, priced its shares at 209.88 Hong Kong dollars in the IPO. Shares were last trading 46% higher at HK$306.8.
Victory Giant had raised about HK$20.1 billion ($2.57 billion) in the city’s biggest listing in about seven months. This makes Victory Giant Hong Kong’s biggest IPO since Zijin Gold International‘s $3.2 billion IPO in September.
— Justina Lee