Infographic | Gelonghui: The "technology soft-to-hard ratio" indicator for US stocks has fallen to around 5.3

According to a memo obtained by Reuters on Thursday, Apple has appointed internal executive Steve Smith as head of mergers and acquisitions, and moved Adrian Perica to the services division. The memo, written by Eddy Cue, head of services, states that Perica has more than 17 years of extensive experience in Apple’s M&A and corporate development departments and has been overseeing iCloud, Fitness+, and News since 2023. Details from the memo specify that Perica will now be fully dedicated to the services leadership team and will report to Cue. Apple has not yet responded to Reuters’ request for comment regarding this personnel change. This adjustment is one of a series of recent management changes since the appointment of new CEO John Ternus. “We have grand plans for our services business, and I’m delighted to have more of Adrian’s time,” Cue wrote in the memo. The memo also says Smith will report to CFO Kevin Parekh. According to Bloomberg, the company has also promoted Carson Oliver to Vice President of the App Store, with Bloomberg reporting on this earlier in the day. On Thursday, Apple’s stock price rose by about 1.4%.

03:39 PM EDT, 10/08/2026 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with index/price moves and geopolitical news from the first paragraph.) US equity indexes fell as a sell-off in semiconductors pushed technology to the bottom of sector charts, while crude oil surged ahead of Thursday's close. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.4% to 27,153.2, the S&P 500 declined 0.6% to 7,750.1, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.1% to 51,114.6. Energy and consumer staples led gainers. Among stocks with market capitalization exceeding $200 billion, all of the top 10 names were technology companies, and within those, eight were from semiconductor-related industries, according to data compiled by Finviz. The three worst performers in this mega-cap category were Arm (ARM), Intel (INTC), and Oracle (ORCL), down by at least 6.1% each. Meanwhile, tankers are facing a higher risk of attacks and intimidation as they try to get critical shipments through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran issued new warnings that it would block routes that it has not authorized, sources told Reuters. This comes as tropical storm Isaias continues to strengthen ahead of landfall on the northern Gulf Coast by this weekend, CNN reported. The storm rapidly intensified into the Atlantic season's first hurricane on Wednesday night, the news report added. Chevron (CVX) has begun shut-in procedures for production at four Gulf of America facilities and is evacuating workers as Isaias approaches, the company said. Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil contract advanced 3.8% to $91.67 per barrel, and global benchmark Brent jumped 4.3% to $104.51 per barrel even after President Donald Trump reportedly said Thursday that the US will not attack Iran before the mid-term elections in early November while pointing out "productive discussions" with Tehran. The US borrowing costs at Treasury auctions continued to rise on Thursday. An auction of $22 billion of 30-year bonds hit a high yield of 5.618%, up from 5.308% in the previous auction. The bid-to-cover ratio, which measur