Wall Street would 'gladly applaud' tech firms following Apple's lead to ditch Russia, says Wedbush's Dan Ives

• Wedbush said Apple's decision to halt sales in Russia should prompt other tech stalwarts to exit.
• Oracle, Google, and other tech firms are limiting sales or business operations in Russia.

Apple, Google and other US Big Tech companies are halting business in Russia after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, actions that will reduce sales in the sector and be cheered by Wall Street, said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.

"With Apple's move this week to ban the sales of its products in Russia we expect more tech stalwarts to head down the same path and pull the plug on Russia by this weekend given the horrific atrocities seen coming out of Ukraine," Ives wrote in a note Friday.

The list of tech firms that have already backed away includes business software behemoth Oracle and Microsoft which has halted all new sales and services there. Airbnb late Thursday said it suspended operations in Russia and Belarus. Apple doesn't have retail stores in Russia but it said it stopped all exports to Russian sales channels last week.

The US and its allies have imposed sanctions against Russia for launching its assault against the former Soviet republic. Russian forces on Friday seized Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant, but radiation levels were stable. Meanwhile, the ninth day of the invasion was marked by reports of intense Russian strikes against the port city of Mariupol, expanding strikes in strategic areas including the capital Kyiv.

"Taking a step back, the exposure to large tech stalwarts such as FAANG names and the software/chip ecosystem is a rounding error relative to the global footprint with our estimates that if the US tech world pulled the plug on Russia it would have a 1%-2% revenue impact in a worst-case scenario," said Ives.

"This is a move the Street would gladly applaud given the heartbreaking Ukraine invasion by Russia that is playing out in front of the world's eyes," he said.

Google is limiting access to Russian state-controlled media in Ukraine and Facebook parent Meta is restricting all content coming from Russian state-owned media across the globe.

Influential technology companies including Google and Facebook had faced calls to respond to the Ukraine crisis.