🌏 Upvotes and upticks

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ByQuartz Staff

Published3 hours ago

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Image for article titled 🌏 Upvotes and upticks — Photo: Spencer Platt (Getty Images)

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Here’s what you need to know

Rally cry. On the back of solid jobs numbers and other strong economic data, the stock market has clawed back to where it was before President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement.

Thread count rising

Reddit is earning some serious upvotes. The platform delivered a 61% jump in first-quarter revenue to $392.4 million, fueled almost entirely by advertising.

The surprising surge wasn’t powered by scale, celebrity, or algorithmic magic. It came from good old-fashioned human content. As the internet sags under the weight of AI sludge, Reddit’s value prop — real people offering real answers — is suddenly gold. CEO Steve Huffman said it plainly: “The world needs community and shared knowledge. And that’s what we do best.”

And the site’s traffic is converting into premium ad dollars.

Of course, there’s a risk: Much of Reddit’s reach depends on Google, which often surfaces the company’s threads high in search results. Now that Google is rolling out AI-generated “Overviews” that summarize forum posts instead of linking to them, Reddit’s traffic is starting to dip in test markets. But Reddit’s emphasis on authenticity over algorithm is working for now. Quartz’s Catherine Baab has more on how Reddit might be winning the internet.

The core problem

Apple beat Wall Street’s expectations for the fifth straight quarter — but you likely wouldn’t know it from the post-earnings vibe.

The tech giant reported $95.4 billion in Q2 revenue and $1.65 EPS, both ahead of analysts’ forecasts. But shares still slid immediately after the earnings report as investors fretted over what’s coming: a looming $900 million tariff hit, a continued China sales slump, and softer Services growth.

CEO Tim Cook has tried to calm nerves, touting a supply chain shift to India and Vietnam to sidestep Trump’s 145% tariffs on China — but that might not be enough. Meanwhile, services revenue came in slightly below expectations, and Apple’s margins (especially on iPhones) hit five-year lows for a March quarter.

On top of it all, Apple is still juggling antitrust suits, regulatory heat, and declining Chinese demand despite government subsidies. So even though the company showed its durability this quarter, storm clouds are gathering ahead of the coming iPhone 17 launch. Quartz’s Shannon Carroll has more on how Apple’s golden goose is laying smaller eggs.