New York, Feb 19, 2026, 10:47 a.m. ET — Regular session
- Apple shares slipped roughly 0.4% after a lawsuit out of West Virginia put fresh legal pressure on iCloud.
- Berkshire Hathaway’s filing put its Apple stake at roughly 228 million shares as of the end of 2025.
- Traders are eyeing Friday’s PCE inflation numbers next, while Apple’s annual shareholder meeting lands on Feb. 24.
Apple (AAPL) lost 0.4% to $263.32 in late morning trade this Thursday, after touching a low of $262.12 earlier. West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey announced a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of mishandling child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, on its iCloud platform. (West Virginia Attorney General)
This case targets a company known for touting privacy as a core selling point, with iCloud occupying a central spot in its services lineup. Investors are uneasy: court-mandated shifts in Apple’s approach to content could add to costs, muddy the waters around encryption decisions—or end up doing both.
The stock slipped alongside a wider retreat in megacap tech, coming after the S&P 500’s recent climb. By early trading, the Nasdaq had dropped 0.6% and the S&P 500 was showing a 0.4% decline, with tech names under pressure as investors questioned whether massive AI investments will pay off any time soon. “On any given day, the bias switches very fast,” said Kim Forrest, founder and chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital. Traders also had their eyes on Friday’s Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation. (Reuters)
Apple maintains it has safeguards in place for children and says it’s “innovating every day to combat ever-evolving threats and maintain the safest, most trusted platform for kids.” But the state’s complaint draws a sharp line: Apple reported just 267 CSAM cases last year. Google? 1.47 million. Meta? 30.6 million. The numbers are from 2023. (Reuters)
Berkshire Hathaway, in a regulatory filing this week, disclosed it owned roughly 227.9 million Apple shares worth about $62.0 billion at the end of December. The numbers surfaced in a Form 13F—these quarterly reports lay out what U.S. stocks major investors are holding. (SEC)
Apple posted fiscal first-quarter revenue of $143.8 billion last month, with diluted EPS landing at $2.84—both numbers hitting records for the quarter. The company credited fresh all-time highs from iPhone and Services. (Apple)
The stock keeps moving—tech sentiment swings hit hard even with all that strength in the background. Apple, especially, gets knocked around by headlines on content controls, privacy, and platform responsibility. Those stories cut deep, and fast.
The legal fight isn’t clean. Apple might win in the end, but the process could stretch out, weighing on the shares—particularly if investors begin factoring in tougher scrutiny around cloud services or potential shifts in safety tools.
Apple’s annual shareholder meeting lands on Feb. 24, drawing investor attention for clues on governance, legal exposure, and the intensity of its privacy push as scrutiny escalates. (Apple)
