Apple pulled off a remarkable achievement with its latest results. The sales of iPhones took a 12 per cent tumble and the company’s earnings fell by a similar amount. Yet the shares jumped in after-hours trading.

As ever, this was partly down to expectations: Wall Street had forecast a deeper dive.

The markets were also buoyed by what chief executive Tim Cook had to say about the future, with new iPhone models on the way, together with his talk about a “marked improvement” in China.