Apple to face the bumping road in 2024

The Cupertino, California-based company, Apple has faced the year 2024 is off to a tough start for Apple. In the day-and-a-half that the stock market has been open this year, the iPhone maker's stock has fallen by nearly 5%.

Apple has been the world’s most valuable publicly-listed company since July 2022, but has seen about US$177 billion in market value erased so far this year. Apple at risk of losing world's most valuable stock title. according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Shares of Apple fell 0.4 per cent on Friday after a report that the US Justice Department is closer to filing an antitrust case against the company. While the stock has suffered bigger percentage declines in the first week of January, the losses are the biggest market value destruction at the start of any year on record.

If the decline holds by the time the market closes Wednesday, that will represent a loss of more than $120 billion in market value in just two days. Two very expensive days.

The potential antitrust case against Apple "would add to the plethora of problems it faces, from slowing iPhone sales to Apple Watch patent issues", Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anurag Rana wrote in a note. "The suit could attack Apple's business model of tightly integrating its devices and services."

Apple's overall revenue has declined for four consecutive quarters, and the company has hinted at modest expectations for holiday sales. The iPhone, which accounts for nearly half of Apple's revenue, is facing stiffer competition in China, and the Apple Watch is locked in a patent fight that forced Apple to halt sales of certain models in the U.S. for a few days last year.