Apple's thin margin forecast drags tech as oil spikes on Iran strike

Apple did the hard part right and still got punished. Revenue beat expectations across its product lines, but the iPhone maker's guidance for a gross margin of 45-46% landed with a thud as it wrestles with the global memory chip crunch. Shares were under pressure in premarket trading, and the disappointment is rippling outward.

Oil is the other live wire. Crude prices accelerated through overnight trade after a surprise attack on Iran's Qeshm Island, and Tehran says it's ready to hit back forcefully. A U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal that Washington has been running limited strikes against the country for weeks, kept deliberately quiet to avoid signaling a major escalation, according to the report.

The AI trade is feeling the heat. The Nasdaq-100 closed Monday in correction territory, more than 10% below its Oct. 6 record high. South Korea and Taiwan both traded sharply lower, chip stocks fell across Europe, and U.S. futures sat flat.

Beneath all of it, voters are heading to the polls. CNBC has been digging into how the midterm results could reshape companies with heavy Washington exposure, especially in defense, healthcare, crypto and AI.

Separately, North Korea swatted down allegations tying Pyongyang to the estimated $6.3 billion Binance hack. Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, called the accusation a grave political provocation, according to state media via Yonhap. She was responding to the FBI's attribution of the attack to North Korea-linked group TraderTraitor. Blockchain analytics firms Elliptic and Chainalysis have also linked the attack and the later movement of stolen funds to North Korea-linked actors.