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Conway Gittens: I’m Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.

Geopolitics moved to center stage on Tuesday, putting pressure on U.S. stocks. Investors are focusing on reports Iran is preparing to launch an attack against Israel. That development is overshadowing upbeat economic news. Job openings picked up in August, while manufacturing activity didn’t get worse in September as inflationary pressures eased.

Related: Huawei answers Apple’s iPhone 16 with the first trifold phone

Turning now to other business headlines…It appears that Apple may not have a big winner with the new iPhone 16. The device began selling in late September and early sales aren’t living up to analysts expectations.

Since Apple doesn’t give out preliminary sales figures, analysts use a number of measures to estimate how sales are going. According to TF International Securities, Apple sold 37 million iPhone 16s in the first weekend of pre-sales, which was a 12 percent drop from the iPhone 15 debut in 2023.

The problem is likely two fold. The iPhone 16 is Apple’s first AI-ready smartphone but many of the AI features won’t be ready until later this year or early next year – so many consumers may not feel rushed to upgrade. On the other hand, Apple has packed so many bells and whistles into the basic model, that analysts think iPhone users who are ready to upgrade are opting for the cheaper model, which is bringing down Apple’s average selling price.

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There is hope, however, that some customers might be holding off an upgrade for the Christmas holiday.

The iPhone is Apple’s cash cow and the company needs a sales rebound to offset years of sluggish sales. Roughly half of Apple’s annual revenue comes from this device alone.

That’ll do it for your Daily Briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m Conway Gittens with TheStreet.

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