Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook and his right-wing CFO Luca Maestri confided in their in-house Wall Street economist during the tech giant’s conference call Thursday night.

After a rare loss of revenue for Apple, Cook and Maestri used a variation of the phrase “tough economy” seven times during the earnings call. Both are unusual for the mighty Apple.

“The macroeconomic environment over the last quarter has been significantly more challenging than 12 months ago,” Maestri told analysts.

Shares of Apple – which fell significantly in premarket trading on Friday – nevertheless rebounded on Friday.

The economic challenges highlighted by Cook were evident in Apple’s earnings.

Apple revenue overview

• Income: $117.1 billion vs $121.1 billion expected

• Adj. earnings per share: $1.88 vs $1.94 expected

• iPhone Earnings: $65.7 billion vs $68.3 billion expected

• Mac Earnings: $7.7 billion vs $9.72 billion expected

• iPad Earnings: $9.4 billion vs $7.7 billion expected

• Bearing capacity: $13.4 billion vs $15.3 billion expected

• Services: $20.7 billion vs $20.4 billion expected

• Won : 1) Chinese demand seems to be accelerating; 2) $50 billion plus cash on the books; 3) Supply bottlenecks are almost over.

• Is missing: 1) No sales guidance renewed for the March quarter; 2) negative executive tone on the economy; 3) Weak wearable sales due to the economy.

Despite the rare failures and the cautious tone of Cook & Co., the bulls on the street are sticking to the stock.

The collective sentiment is that everyone knew the quarter would be weak as the Chinese economy slowly reopens and US consumers spend more cautiously. In turn, Apple’s last quarter for the iPhone and Mac maker this year could be as bad as it gets.

Or bet the cops.

“The bears will quickly report negative revenue growth, but we note that at constant exchange rates, revenues and outlook are stable, which is significantly better than other consumer electronics companies with billions of devices. Apple assets and an installed iPhone base, which is estimated. to over 1.2 billion),” Citi analyst Jim Suva said in a note to clients.

Suva – who will discuss Apple on Yahoo Finance Live on Friday – issued a buy rating on the stock.

Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the new iPhone 14 during an Apple event at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, U.S., September 7, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Yahoo finance Dan Howley contributed to this story.

Brian Soci is an independent publisher and Anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and further LinkedIn.

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