Apple on Friday officially scheduled its quarterly conference call with analysts for Tuesday, July 21st, at 5:00 PM EDT, 2:00 PM PDT. The company will be taking questions about its June quarter performance, and Wall Street appears optimistic at what the company will announce.
Shares of $AAPL closed higher on Friday at US$129.62, a gain of $1.11 (+0.86 percent), on moderate volume of 46.2 million shares trading hands. That's up 5.1 percent for the week ending Friday, July 17th, and a gain of 7.9 percent since the stock's recent closing low of $120.07 set seven trading days ago on July 9th.
30 Day Chart for $AAPL ending July 17th, 2015
Source: Yahoo! Finance
Worries about China's economy had put selling pressure on Apple's stock as investors worries that Apple's biggest market—China—might stop buying iPhones. Those concerns have eased, however, as some Wall Street analysts have issued reports saying demand for iPhone remains strong in the country.
Analysts are likely to be watching closely for any indication of Apple's feelings about China, and they will also probably try to ferret out information about Apple Watch sales. Apple has said that it won't initially break out sales numbers for the device, making information about it a prized commodity. Research company Trefis said on Friday that the lack of clarity on Apple Watch is creating an overhang for the company's stock.
Apple guided for revenue between $46 and $48 billion, with gross margins between 38.5 percent and 39.5 percent.
*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a tiny, almost insignificant share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.