United States — United States Department of Commerce & Apple Inc.

United States — United States Department of Commerce: The United States — United States Department of Commerce is the agency Apple Inc. initially approached to seek an exemption for purchasing chips from Yangtze Memory Technologies. This department is responsible for enforcing trade restrictions and managing the Entity List, which could impose severe licensing requirements on transactions with blacklisted companies.

Apple Inc.: Apple Inc. is actively lobbying the Trump administration to secure approval to purchase memory chips from Yangtze Memory Technologies, a blacklisted Chinese company. This move is aimed at mitigating the financial strain caused by soaring memory chip costs, which have already led Apple Inc. to increase prices for its products like MacBooks and iPads, impacting its market capitalization negatively.

United States — United States Department of Commerce: The United States — United States Department of Commerce reported a slowdown in retail sales in April, with higher gas prices fueled by the Iran war meaning less money for nonessential goods.

Apple Inc.: Apple Inc. reported better-than-expected profits, leading to a 3.3% rally in its stock and significantly contributing to the S&P 500's rise.