Finance

Leading analyst Craig Moffett suggests any plans to move U.S. iPhone assembly to India is unrealistic.
Moffett, ranked as a top analyst multiple times by Institutional Investor, sent a memo to clients on Friday after the Financial Times reported Apple was aiming to shift production toward India from China by the end of next year.

He’s questioning how a move could bring down costs tied to tariffs because the iPhone components would still be made in China.
“You have a tremendous menu of problems created by tariffs, and moving to India doesn’t solve all the problems. Now granted, it helps to some degree,” the MoffettNathanson partner and senior managing director told CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Friday. “I would question how that’s going to work.”
Moffett contends it’s not so easy to diversify to India — telling clients Apple’s supply chain would still be anchored in China and would likely face resistance.
“The bottom line is a global trade war is a two-front battle, impacting costs and sales. Moving assembly to India might (and we emphasize might) help with the former. The latter may ultimately be the bigger issue,” he wrote to clients.
Moffett cut his Apple price target on Monday to $141 from $184 a share. It implies a 33% drop from Friday’s close. The price target is also the Street low, according to FactSet.

“I don’t think of myself as the biggest Apple bear,” he said. “I think quite highly of Apple. My concern about Apple has been the valuation more than the company.”
Moffett has had a “sell” rating on Apple since Jan. 7. Since then, the company’s shares are down about 14%.
“None of this is because Apple is a bad company. They still have a great balance sheet [and] a great consumer franchise,” he said. “It’s just the reality of there are no good answers when you are a product company, and your products are going to be significantly tariffed, and you’re heading into a market that is likely to have at least some deceleration in consumer demand because of the macro economy.”
Moffett notes Apple also isn’t getting help from its carriers to cushion the blow of tariffs.
“You also have the demand destruction that’s created by potentially higher prices. Remember, you had AT&T, Verizon and T. Mobile all this week come out and say we’re not going to underwrite the additional cost of tariff [on] handsets,” he added. “The consumer is going to have to pay for that. So, you’re going to have some demand destruction that’s going to show up in even longer holding periods and slower upgrade rates — all of which probably trims estimates [in] next year’s consensus.”
According to Moffett, the backlash against Apple in China over U.S. tariffs will also hurt iPhone sales.
“It’s a very real problem,” Moffett said. “Volumes are really going to the Huaweis and the Vivos and the local competitors in China rather than to Apple.”
Apple stock is coming off a winning week — up more than 6%. It comes ahead of the iPhone maker’s quarterly earnings report due next Thursday after the market close.

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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is one of this year’s top performing stocks.
A new ETF is tracking Buffett’s favorite companies, and adding a 15% income component to boost shareholder returns in a volatile market.
Berkshire is holding a record amount of cash, and has never paid a dividend to shareholders.

In a year that hasn’t been kind to many big-name stocks, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is standing near the top. Berkshire shares have posted a 17% return year-to-date, while the S&P 500 index is down 6%.
That performance places Berkshire among the top 10% of the U.S. market’s large-cap leaders, and the run has been getting Buffett more attention ahead of next weekend’s annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. It’s also good timing for the recently launched VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF (OMAH), which holds the top 20 most heavily weighted stocks in Berkshire Hathaway, as well as shares of Berkshire Hathaway. 

Berkshire is currently the biggest holding in the ETF, at 10.6% of the fund. Other top holdings in the ETF from among the ranks of Berkshire’s biggest bets include Apple, American Express, Kroger, VeriSign, Bank of America, Citigroup, Visa and of course Coca-Cola, a long time favorite of the man known as the Oracle of Omaha.
“It’s a really well-balanced portfolio chosen by the most successful investor the world has ever seen,” Adam Patti, CEO of VistaShares, said in an appearance this week on CNBC’s “ETF Edge.”
Berkshire’s outperformance of the S&P 500 isn’t limited to 2025. Buffett’s stock has tripled the performance of the market over the past year, and its 185% return over the past five years is more than double the performance of the S&P 500.

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Berkshire Hathaway is one of 2025’s top performing stocks.

In addition to its long-term track record of success in the market, Berkshire Hathaway is getting a lot of attention right now for the record amount of cash Buffett is holding as he trimmed stakes in big stocks including Apple, which has proven to be a great strategy. The S&P 500 has experienced extreme short-term volatility since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20. Even after a recent recovery, the S&P is still down 8% since the start of Trump’s second term.
“The market has been momentum driven for many years, the switch has flipped and we’re looking at quality in terms of exposure, and Berkshire Hathaway has performed incredibly well this year, handily outperforming the S&P 500,” Patti said.

Berkshire Hathaway famously doesn’t pay a dividend, with Buffett holding firm over many decades in the belief that he can re-invest cash to create more value for shareholders. In a letter to shareholders in February, Buffett wrote that Berkshire shareholders “can rest assured that we will forever deploy a substantial majority of their money in equities — mostly American equities.”
The lack of a dividend payment has been an issue over the years for some shareholders at Berkshire who do want income from the market, according to Patti, who added that his firm conducted research among investors in designing the ETF. “Who doesn’t want to invest like Buffett, but with income?” he said.
So, in addition to being tied to the performance of Berkshire and the stock picks of Buffett, the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF is designed to produce income of 15% annually through a strategy of selling call options and distributing monthly payments of 1.25% to shareholders. This income strategy has become more popular in the ETF space, with more asset managers launching funds to capture income opportunities and more investors adopting the approach amid market volatility. More

A Lending Tree survey found 25% of buy now, pay later users are funding grocery purchases with the loans, up from 14% in 2024.
The survey said 41% of respondents said they made a late payment on a BNPL loan in the past year, up from 34% in the year prior.
The figures are the latest evidence that some consumers are having trouble affording essentials such as groceries under the pressure of high prices and interest rates.

People shop for produce at a Walmart in Rosemead, California, on April 11, 2025. 
Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Images

A growing number of Americans are using buy now, pay later loans to buy groceries, and more people are paying those bills late, according to new Lending Tree data released Friday. 
The figures are the latest indicator that some consumers are cracking under the pressure of an uncertain economy and are having trouble affording essentials such as groceries as they contend with persistent inflation, high interest rates and concerns around tariffs. 

In a survey conducted April 2-3 of 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 79, around half reported having used buy now, pay later services. Of those consumers, 25% of respondents said they were using BNPL loans to buy groceries, up from 14% in 2024 and 21% in 2023, the firm said.
Meanwhile, 41% of respondents said they made a late payment on a BNPL loan in the past year, up from 34% in the year prior, the survey found.
Lending Tree’s chief consumer finance analyst, Matt Schulz, said that of those respondents who said they paid a BNPL bill late, most said it was by no more than a week or so.
“A lot of people are struggling and looking for ways to extend their budget,” Schulz said. “Inflation is still a problem. Interest rates are still really high. There’s a lot of uncertainty around tariffs and other economic issues, and it’s all going to add up to a lot of people looking for ways to extend their budget however they can.”
“For an awful lot of people, that’s going to mean leaning on buy now, pay later loans, for better or for worse,” he said. 

He stopped short of calling the results a recession indicator but said conditions are expected to decline further before they get better.  
“I do think it’s going to get worse, at least in the short term,” said Schulz. “I don’t know that there’s a whole lot of reason to expect these numbers to get better in the near term.”
The loans, which allow consumers to split up purchases into several smaller payments, are a popular alternative to credit cards because they often don’t charge interest. But consumers can see high fees if they pay late, and they can run into problems if they stack up multiple loans. In Lending Tree’s survey, 60% of BNPL users said they’ve had multiple loans at once, with nearly a fourth saying they have held three or more at once. 
“It’s just really important for people to be cautious when they use these things, because even though they can be a really good interest-free tool to help you kind of make it from one paycheck to the next, there’s also a lot of risk in mismanaging it,” said Schulz. “So people should tread lightly.” 
Lending Tree’s findings come after Billboard revealed that about 60% of general admission Coachella attendees funded their concert tickets with buy now, pay later loans, sparking a debate on the state of the economy and how consumers are using debt to keep up their lifestyles. A recent announcement from DoorDash that it would begin accepting BNPL financing from Klarna for food deliveries led to widespread mockery and jokes that Americans were struggling so much that they were now being forced to finance cheeseburgers and burritos.
Over the last few years, consumers have held up relatively well, even in the face of persistent inflation and high interest rates, because the job market was strong and wage growth had kept up with inflation — at least for some workers. 
Earlier this year, however, large companies including Walmart and Delta Airlines began warning that the dynamic had begun to shift and they were seeing cracks in demand, which was leading to worse-than-expected sales forecasts.  More

Tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump are expected to raise costs on products for U.S. consumers.
However, tariffs would hurt lower income households with a minimal impact on the top one percent of earners in 2026, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Shipping containers at the Port of Seattle on April 16, 2025.
David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Tariffs levied by President Donald Trump during his second term would hurt the poorest U.S. households more than the richest over the short term, according to a new analysis.
Tariffs are a tax that importers pay on foreign goods. Economists expect consumers to shoulder at least some of that tax burden in the form of higher prices, depending on how businesses pass along the costs.

In 2026, taxes for the poorest 20% of households would rise about four times more than those in the top 1%, if the current tariff policies were to stay in place. Those were findings according to an analysis published Wednesday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

For the bottom 20% of households — who will have incomes of less than $29,000 in 2026 — the tariffs will impose a tax increase equal to 6.2% of their income that year, on average, according to ITEP’s analysis.
Meanwhile, those in the top 1%, with an income of more than $915,000 a year, would see their taxes rise 1.7% relative to their income, on average, ITEP found.
Economists analyze the financial impact of policy relative to household income because it illustrates how their disposable income — and quality of life — are impacted.

Taxes by ‘another name’

“Tariffs are just taxes on Americans by another name,” researchers at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, wrote in 2017, during Trump’s first term.

“[They] raise the price of food and clothing, which make up a larger share of a low-income household’s budget,” they wrote, adding: “In fact, cutting tariffs could be the biggest tax cut low-income families will ever see.”
Meanwhile, there’s already evidence that some retailers are raising costs.
A recent analysis by the Yale Budget Lab also found that Trump tariffs are a “regressive” policy, meaning they hurt those at the bottom more than the top.  
More from Personal Finance:Consumers are spending as trade wars raise recession oddsConsumers make financial changes in response to tariffsCan tariff revenue replace income tax?
The short-term tax burden of tariffs is about 2.5 times greater for those at the bottom, the Yale analysis found. It examined tariffs and retaliatory trade measures through April 15.
“Lower income consumers are going to get pinched more by tariffs,” said Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at the Yale Budget Lab and former chief economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the Biden administration.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said tariffs may lead to a “one-time price adjustment” for consumers. But he also coupled trade policy as part of a broader White House economic agenda that includes a forthcoming legislative package of tax cuts.

“We’re also working on the tax bill and for working Americans, I believe that the reduction in taxes is going to be substantially more,” Bessent said April 2.
It’s also unclear how current tariff policy might change. The White House has signaled trade deals with certain nations and exemptions for certain products may be in the offing.
Trump has imposed a 10% tariff on imports from most U.S. trading partners. Mexico and Canada face 25% levies on a tranche of goods, and many Chinese goods face import duties of 145%. Specific products also face tariffs, like a 25% duty on aluminum, steel and automobiles. More

It appears T. Rowe Price is benefiting from the record growth in actively managed exchange-traded funds.
Tim Coyne, the firm’s head of ETFs, reports T. Rowe Price is seeing significant growth in the area — listing the T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation Equity ETF (TCAF) and T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF (TSPA) as two established strategies that can satisfy investor demand.

“I think having that professionally managed portfolio is really beneficial to clients,” Coyne told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “We’re seeing just … greater volatility [and] uncertainty across both the equity and fixed income markets.”
According to Coyne, the T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation Equity ETF suits investors who are looking for long-term growth.
“The objective of the fund is to outperform the S&P 500 with lower volatility and greater tax efficiency,” he said. “It’s also a more concentrated portfolio, typically holding around a hundred names.”
As of April 24, the fund’s top holdings include Microsoft, Amazon and Apple according to the T. Rowe Price website. But it’s not all Big Tech. The ETF also features smaller positions in companies like Becton Dickinson and Roper Technologies.
The T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation Equity ETF is down about 5% so far this year while the S&P 500 is off about 7%. However, the ETF is up close to 8% over the past year — roughly identical to the S&P 500’s performance.

Coyne notes the T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF follows a similar strategy, but with a heavier weighting in top tech stocks.
“This is more of a large-cap growth product [T Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF],” he said. “There are components of characteristics of both passive and active here. This fund is actually managed by our North American directors of research. So again, strong fundamental research is going into the stock selection.”
Both the T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF and S&P 500 are down around 7% since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, the fund is up almost 9% over the past year. That’s less than 1 percent better than the S&P 500’s performance.

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T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF vs. S&P 500

‘Some form of bear market’

Strategas Securities’ Todd Sohn thinks investment demand for active managers will continue to be strong.
“This is the type of the environment where it [active management] can actually shine,” the firm’s senior ETF and technical strategist said. “We are in some form of bear market. This is where the active manager really can come into hand and offer their solution they are doing right.”

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China plans to help struggling businesses with targeted measures in the face of “increased external shocks,” according to a readout of a meeting chaired Friday by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Politburo meeting readout also called for “timely reduction” of interest rates and the reserve requirement ratio — the amount of cash banks need to have on hand.
Policymakers are sticking with their stance from earlier this year, while indicating flexibility for targeted measures, said Zong Liang, chief researcher at Bank of China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 5, 2025.
Florence Lo | Reuters

BEIJING — China plans to help struggling businesses with targeted measures in the face of “increased external shocks,” according to a readout of a meeting chaired Friday by President Xi Jinping.
The meeting of the Politburo, the second most powerful political body in China, comes as tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated this month with new tit-for-tat tariffs of more than 100%. Major Wall Street banks have cut their China GDP forecasts for the year as a result, while the country still strives to achieve its lofty goal of “around 5%” growth set in March.

Authorities called for “multiple measures to help businesses in difficulty,” such as financial support, according to the Chinese-language readout, translated by CNBC.
The Politburo also called for “timely reduction” of interest rates and the reserve requirement ratio — the amount of cash banks need to have on hand.
Policymakers are sticking with their stance from earlier this year, while indicating flexibility for targeted measures, said Zong Liang, chief researcher at Bank of China. For mitigating the impact of tariffs, he expects China will do more research on specific businesses, and consider how to support them.

In a rare move, China in March raised its deficit target to 4% of GDP. Finance Minister Lan Fo’an indicated at the time that China had more room to act on fiscal policy.
Since the escalation in U.S. trade tensions this month, local Chinese governments and major businesses have announced efforts to help exporters redirect their products to the domestic market for sale.

The Politburo meeting readout emphasized the need to increase the income of middle and lower-income groups, and boost services consumption. The leaders also called for further tech development, including the integration of artificial intelligence.
“The press release shows the government is ready to launch new policies when the economy is affected by the external shock,” Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said in a note.
“It seems Beijing is not in a rush to launch a large stimulus at this stage,” he said. “It takes time to monitor and evaluate the timing and the size of the trade shock.”

Policy coordination

The CSI 300 briefly turned lower and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index trimmed gains after the meeting statement was released.
China’s Politburo, composed of high-level members of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, tends to lay out broad policy directives.
The latest meeting reaffirmed policies from the State Council — the top executive body — and government ministries, “underscoring high-level commitment and collaboration,” said Bruce Pang, adjunct associate professor at CUHK Business School.
“While they may not offer many unexpected and ground breaking surprises, these measures equip policymakers with tools to navigate external uncertainties,” he said, adding he expects a forthcoming private sector law to further improve the business environment.
The standing committee of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, is scheduled to meet from Sunday to Wednesday, and review a new law to support the private sector.

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In her first broadcast interview since taking the reins at the Cleveland Fed, Hammack noted the high level of uncertainty now and did not commit to a specific course of action regarding interest rates.
A former Goldman Sachs executive, Hammack said she is sensitive to market movements but only in how they affect broader economic conditions.

Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said Thursday she thinks policymakers need to be patient rather than preemptive in assessing how tariffs will impact inflation and growth.
In her first broadcast interview since taking the reins at the central bank district in August 2024, Hammack noted the high level of uncertainty now and did not commit to a specific course of action regarding interest rate policy.

“I think we need to be patient. I think this is a time when we want to make sure we’re moving in the right direction, than moving too quickly in the wrong direction,” she told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “So I would rather take our time to make sure we’re looking at the data, the hard data … which are actually really good.”
Hammack’s remarks come at a sensitive time for the Federal Reserve, which has been left to assess the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on both inflation and employment.
Several central bank officials, including Chair Jerome Powell, have said the duties pose threats to both sides of the Fed’s “dual mandate,” posing another challenge on how to calibrate monetary policy. Hammack also voiced concerns over how the Fed might balance those priorities.
“It could be that we have the two sides of our mandate and conflict, which is the most challenging for monetary policy,” she said. “If it’s higher inflation, lower employment, that’s where things get really complicated.”
Markets strongly expect the Fed will stand pat on interest rates when it meets May 6-7, then resume cutting rates in June with the likelihood of a total three or four reductions by the end of the year, according to CME Group data.

Hammack does not vote this year on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee but will vote in 2026.
“If we have convincing data by June, then I think you’ll see the committee move if we know which way to move at that point,” Hammack said.
However, uncertainty over tariff policy and how the Fed might react has contributed to substantial market volatility in recent months, with stocks struggling, Treasury yields rising and the U.S. dollar falling.
A former Goldman Sachs executive, Hammack said she is sensitive to market movements but only in how they affect broader economic conditions.
“Our job is not to focus on what the markets are doing. Our job is to focus on how that’s going to impact households and businesses, and what that’s going to mean in the real economy,” she said. “So we’re not steering the markets. We’re steering the real economy.”
Hammack noted that the “hard” economic data such as unemployment and inflation is still relatively good, while “soft” data such as surveys shows elevated levels of concern.
“What we’re hearing right now is that the uncertainty is really weighing on businesses,” she said. “It’s creating issues for them in terms of planning, in terms of thinking about where they’re going to go, and so some of them have put pauses on whether they’re going to make bigger investments, whether they’re going to invest in new facilities, new capital plans, and then they’re thinking about their hiring plans.”
“I wish I had a crystal ball. We don’t have one,” Hammack added.
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Digital banking unicorn Revolut said Thursday that net profit for the year ending Dec. 31, 2024, totaled £1.1 billion ($1.5 billion), up 149% year over year.
The financial milestone arrives as Revolut is preparing a transition to becoming a fully operational bank in the U.K. after securing a banking license last summer.
Revolut’s U.K. CEO previously said she sees views the journey to full banking authorization as a crucial step in global expansion and an eventual IPO.

Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, Nov. 7, 2019.
Pedro Nunes | Reuters

LONDON — British fintech firm Revolut on Thursday announced it topped $1 billion in annual profit for the first time, a major milestone for the company as it readies the launch of its U.K. bank later this year.
Revolut, which offers a range of banking and financial services via an app, said that net profit for the year ending Dec. 31, 2024, totaled £1.1 billion ($1.5 billion), up 149% year over year. Revenues at the company increased 72% year on year to £3.1 billion, driven by growth across different revenue streams.

Revolut’s wealth unit — which includes its stock and crypto-trading businesses — saw outsized growth, with revenue surging 298% to £506 million, while subscriptions turnover jumped 74% to £423 million.
Revolut also saw significant growth in its loan book, which grew 86% to £979 million. Coupled with a jump in customer deposits, this contributed to a 58% increase in interest income, which totaled £790 million.

UK bank rollout

Revolut’s financial milestone arrives at a critical time for the almost decade-old-firm. The digital banking unicorn has been preparing a transition to becoming a fully operational bank in the U.K. after securing a banking license last summer.

It was granted a banking license with restrictions in July 2024 from the U.K.’s Prudential Regulation Authority, bringing an end to a lengthy application process that began back in 2021.
The restricted license means that Revolut is now in the “mobilization” stage, where it is focusing on building out its banking operations and infrastructure in the run-up to a full launch. The period typically lasts about 12 months.

Revolut is still awaiting approval from regulators to transfer all 11 million of its U.K. users to a new banking entity this summer. Once fully up and running, the firm will be able to begin offering loans, overdrafts and mortgages, opening up the path to new income streams.

‘Customers trust banks’

Victor Stinga, Revolut’s chief financial officer, told CNBC on Thursday that the company’s aim is to formally launch its U.K. bank later this year.
“As you can imagine, at this scale, it’s a thorough process, and we just pay a lot of attention to it,” Stinga said. “We work very closely on a close contact with the PRA [Prudential Regulation Authority] and the FCA [Financial Conduct Authority] on it. We feel like we’re making great progress on it.”
Stinga said that a big advantage of becoming a bank in the U.K. is ability to start accepting deposits protected by government guarantees. Licensed banks are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which means their customers can claim up to £85,000 if a lender goes out of business.
“Customers trust banks, so it means customers on this transition will use Revolut as a primary bank account,” Stinga said.
Lending is arguably “the biggest roadmap item that this unlocks,” Revolut’s CFO said, adding that the firm is looking at launching credit cards and personal loans, similar to the products it already offers in the European Union under a separate EU banking license.
Francesca Carlesi, Revolut’s U.K. boss, previously told the Wall Street Journal that Revolut views its journey to becoming a U.K. bank as a crucial step in its global expansion and eventual IPO. “My main strategic focus is making Revolut the primary bank for everybody in the U.K.,” she told the WSJ.
It has a steep hill to climb — rivals Monzo and Starling have had a lengthy head start on Revolut. Monzo obtained its full banking license in 2017, while Starling was granted its own permit in 2016. More