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Today’s agenda: PwC US internal probe; Adidas in fresh racism row; Alphabet’s bumper profits; Reform UK targets wealthy offshore donors; and Interpol’s innovation lab
Good morning. We start with an exclusive story on Apple, which is preparing to shift the assembly of all US-sold iPhones to India as soon as next year, according to people familiar with the matter.
What we know: Apple is planning to source from India the entirety of the more than 60mn iPhones sold annually in the US by the end of 2026, as President Donald Trump’s trade war forces the Silicon Valley company to pivot away from China.
The target would mean doubling the iPhone output in India, after almost two decades in which Apple spent heavily in China to create a world-beating production line that powered its rise into a $3tn tech giant.
Tariff impact: Apple manufactures the majority of its iPhones in China, which has been subject to the US president’s most aggressive levies. In the wake of his tariff announcements, which wiped $700bn from Apple’s market value, the company rushed to export available Indian-made iPhones to the US to avoid the then-higher tariffs imposed on China. Read more on Apple’s plans.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:
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Vatican: World leaders attend the funeral of Pope Francis tomorrow.
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UK: Eco-activist group Just Stop Oil holds its final demonstration at Westminster tomorrow while the London Marathon takes place on Sunday.
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Economic data: March UK retail sales figures are released.
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Results: AbbVie, Advantest, Centene, Charter Communications, Colgate-Palmolive, HCA Healthcare, LyondellBasell and Schlumberger report.
How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.
Five more top stories
1. Exclusive: PwC has ordered nearly 300 of its US partners to cut ties with a tiny brokerage firm offering speculative small-cap investments after an internal investigation into the relationships. The ruling has alarmed senior executives at the Big Four accounting firm, who touted their access to lucrative and hard-to-find investments. Stephen Foley has the full report.
2. Adidas is being sued by a former US employee, who claims she was unlawfully fired after complaining about racist and sexist comments made by senior directors. The latest allegations come during a period in which the German sportswear group has been accused of mishandling and playing down incidents of racism at the company.
3. Alphabet shares rose after it reported first-quarter profit had surged 46 per cent, driven by another good performance in its search business and the boom in artificial intelligence-related demand for cloud computing power. The figures gave comfort to investors who have been watching closely for any softness in search because of the popularity of AI chatbots.
4. UK consumer confidence plunged in April to the lowest level in well over a year as concerns over Donald Trump’s global trade war and rising living costs hit household sentiment. The GfK consumer confidence index fell four points to minus 23 in April, the research group said today.
5. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party is launching a drive to raise funds from wealthy offshore donors in low-tax jurisdictions including Monaco, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland, taking advantage of Britain’s lax funding rules to bolster its coffers. The rightwing populist party is targeting expatriate donors from one sector in particular.
The Big Read
Recent turbulence in the Treasury market has partly been the result of trading strategies using derivatives. But the very same investors are increasingly important buyers of US government debt. Find out how the US bond market got hooked on hedge fund leverage.
We’re also reading . . .
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Dispatch from Singapore: Owen Walker pays a visit to Interpol’s innovation lab, where law enforcement officers from around the world develop techniques to fight organised crime.
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Trump tariffs: Beneath all the craziness over import taxes, it is easy to lose sight of basic facts. Tim Harford refreshes us with seven truths about trade.
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Surfing waves of volatility: Amid the choppy markets, foiling negative portfolio returns this year remains a balancing act, writes Stuart Kirk.
Chart of the day
Brits are spending less cash, with notes and coins now accounting for just 12 per cent of all payments. But Bank of England data also shows the value of UK banknotes in circulation has hit a new record high, suggesting more are presumably being stuffed under the proverbial mattress. Claer Barrett posits some theories on why people are hoarding.
Take a break from the news
Georgia is currently enjoying a travel boom. The number of international visitors to the country rose 37 per cent between 2022 and 2024, and new flights are expected to bring more. But while many head to its vineyards and northern villages, Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent journeys to the “lake district” in the south which is studded with cultural and natural wonders.
