Apple Shares Rise Amid Tim Cook’s Optimism on Supply Chain Constraints

Following a recent interview with CNBC News in which Apple CEO Tim Cook said he is seeing supply chain problems improving in the March quarter, the iPhone maker’s shares went up as much as 5% in after-hours trading.

Even though Cook’s comments on the supply chain improvements weren’t much different from some of his peers in the industry, his words seem to carry a lot more weight with the investors.

From Intel to Tesla, executives have offered similar predictions about improvements to the supply chain, but unlike Apple, their shares fell after earnings.

Analysts believe the reason why Apple got a significant boost from investors is due to Cook’s reputation of being a supply chain genius. It is also one of the reasons why the late Steve Jobs chose him as his successor over a decade ago.

“In fact, an analyst asked Cook on Thursday if he’s happy with the structure of Apple’s supply chain. Spoiler alert: Cook said he has Apple’s supply chain just the way he wants it, injecting even more optimism into the idea his company can navigate Covid’s disruptions until the supply chain woes get sorted out over the coming year.”

On the other hand, smaller companies could still have a hard time managing supply chain woes tin the coming months.