Apple surprises in mixed results for 'magnificent seven' tech giants

At the end of a mixed fortnight's worth of trading updates from the US tech giants, it was down to the biggest of them - Apple - to lift investor spirits.The $3.35trn (£2.63trn) giant, established again in June as the world's biggest company after five months during which Microsoft was bigger, reported sales of $85.78bn (£67.32bn) for the three months to the end of June. That was up by just under 5% on the same period last year and was also ahead of the $84.53bn (£66.34bn) Wall Street had been expecting.Mon ...