Nintendo’s price hike for the Switch 2 was the canary in the coal mine.

On Thursday, a somewhat apologetic Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal that consumers should also expect to pay higher prices on Apple products in the near future. Cook didn’t give specifics, but he did call the hikes “unavoidable,” due to an “unsustainable” surge in memory costs. While nobody likes gadget-flation, we imagine at least one person is happy to see the headline: incoming Apple CEO John Ternus, likely grateful his predecessor took the price-hike PR hit on his way out.

One for the Memory Books

Anyone with decent memory recall knows Apple is actually a little late to the price-hiking club. In addition to Nintendo’s forthcoming $50 price increase for the Switch 2, Samsung, Dell, Sony and Microsoft have all begun charging more. Apple, thanks to its immense pricing power, had been able to keep costs down through massive bulk purchases of memory and storage. But stockpiles only last so long, and the gargantuan demand for computer memory in AI data center servers has trampled the consumer device side of the tech industry.

Prices of DRAM memory and NAND storage, the two key components of computer memory, will probably rise 125% and 234%, respectively, this year, according to an April report from research firm Gartner. “This is a hundred-year flood,” Cook told the WSJ. “I’ve never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years.”

At Apple, the biblical wave is threatening to rock the core economics of selling smartphones:

• A separate WSJ analysis published this week, using projections from research firm TechInsights, estimates that the base price for the as-yet-unannounced iPhone 18 Pro, expected in September, will run $1,299, or $200 more than comparable current versions. That projection assumes Apple rounds prices down to a nice, standardized number, reducing the estimated gross profit margin per phone from 47% to 44%.
• The real killer for Apple will probably be deteriorating margins for higher-end models. The company currently charges as much as $200 more for iPhone models with extra storage, far greater than the actual production cost, per the WSJ.

Next Gen: Still, progress at the company marches ever forward. In addition to the new 18 Pro model in September, Apple is expected to launch a next-gen version of its AirPods packed with cameras and powered by AI in 2027, as well as the long-gestating foldable iPhone, according to a report this week from Bloomberg’s all-knowing Apple insider Mark Gurman. The launches would mark the start of the Ternus era, differentiated by his engineering background, which runs counter to Cook’s operations expertise. In other words, Ternus knows how to design products and knows when to fold ‘em.

Smith & Wesson shares shot up 17% on Thursday, a day after the Tennessee-based firearms manufacturer reported earnings that would make Dirty Harry smile.

Investors, meanwhile, felt lucky and poured into related stocks, betting the outdoor, firearms and sports-shooting business is ready to dispense with a slow couple of years.

Taking Stock of a Gun Stock

Heading into the year, US gun sales were at ease, posting modest annual declines from 2023 to 2025. Roughly 14.6 million background checks for gun sales were performed in 2025, representing a 4.1% year-over-year decline, according to analysis of FBI data by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. This year, the market is at attention: Industry watchers hope a 3.2% year-over-year increase in the number of background checks (to 1.1 million) in May indicates a nascent turnaround.

Enter Smith & Wesson’s latest earnings. The company reported after the bell Wednesday that it made a $16.2 million profit in its latest quarter, nearly double earnings a year earlier. Revenue rose 27% to $178.4 million, with 80% of sales growth coming from handguns and 37.5% of total sales coming from newly released guns. The top and bottom line figures blew past Wall Street expectations, some would say faster than 1940s cartoon Superman, who was faster than a … well, you know what. Smith & Wesson also shed a considerable amount of debt, ending its latest fiscal year owing $20 million, down from $80 million a year earlier. Executives said Smith & Wesson’s results signal that it’s outperforming the industry:

• CEO Mark Smith (no relation to 19th-century gunsmith and company cofounder Horace Smith) said background checks reported by the FBI fell 2.3% in the fiscal year through April, while Smith & Wesson’s shipments rose 14.7%, suggesting it won market share.
• Nevertheless, investors viewed the result as an upbeat indicator for the broader gun, outdoor and shooting-sports industry. Shares in rival firearm manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co. rose 5.7% on Thursday, while online firearms marketplace Outdoor Holding Co. and retailers American Outdoor Brands and Sportsman’s Warehouse also posted gains.

State of Affairs: Gun sales are likely getting a boost from state policies, too, one of which is on the verge of an about-face. Virginia businesses have reported surging gun sales in advance of a July 1 state ban on assault rifles: State police said background check applications for gun sales more than doubled last month to 72,956 from 35,571 in May 2025.

For Accenture, which helps companies navigate disruptions, it’s personal this time.

The IT consulting firm’s stock nosedived 18% Thursday after Accenture reported weaker-than-expected fiscal third-quarter revenue and offered a disappointing forecast. Its shares closed at $127.98, their lowest since 2017. CEO Julie Sweet told analysts that the firm took a $400 million hit to its sales in the Middle East due to conflict in the region. The company reported revenue of $18.7 billion, just below the $18.76 billion analysts had been expecting, and predicted sales of $17.75 billion to $18.4 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, lower than the $18.47 billion Bloomberg analysts had estimated.

Despite already heading into the earnings report on its back foot amid concerns about what artificial intelligence means for the consulting industry at large, Accenture announced it’s buying a majority stake in Dragos and acquiring runZero and NetRise to build up its cybersecurity business. Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley analysts downgraded Accenture’s stock, nodding to the company’s “product-focused” acquisition strategy. Investors didn’t seem to approve of the move either.

Struggling Onward

Corporate clients tightening their purse strings due to the conflict in the Middle East is just the latest headache for Accenture and its fellow consulting firms. Their stocks have tanked this year as investors worry that AI will take at least some of the jobs that these professional services firms do:

• Stocks of IT services and consulting companies Infosys and Capgemini have both tumbled roughly 40% this year.
• Just last week, Apollo Global Management’s co-president Scott Kleinman said on a panel at the SuperReturn conference in Berlin that consultants (alongside lawyers and accountants) are likely to be the next roles disrupted by AI.

Some Good AI News: While AI is a thorn in Accenture’s side in some ways, it also means companies need help incorporating the new technology into their strategies. Sweet said via a press release that demand for large-scale reinvention is strong, with Accenture seeing 104 quarterly client bookings of $100 million or more year-to-date, up 13%. “We are seeing more large-scale AI transformation programs, while executing our strategy to capture new areas of growth,” she added.