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Equities Roundup: IT, Not Worst Apple in the Barrel

US STOCKS
  • Stocks are trading mixed, DJIA mildly higher vs. weaker SPX and Nasdaq indexes in late morning trade. Currently, S&P E-Mini futures are down 22.25 points (-0.5%) at 4449.75, Nasdaq down 161.8 points (-1.2%) at 13711.83, DJIA up 31.9 points (0.09%) at 34477.93.
  • Laggers: Information Technology, Materials and Industrials sectors underperformed in the first half. While myriad headlines heralding continued weakness in Apple (down as much as 5% on the day, partly due to a expanding ban on IPhone use by China state officials), the tech firm was not the day's worst performer.
  • That would be Seagate, down as much as 8% the day after outperforming the market, after Barclays downgraded the company citing weaker hard drive demand. Other laggers included Zebra Tech -5.3% and Western Digital -3.7%.
  • Metals and mining shares weighed on Materials (FCX -2.4%) while airlines weighed on Industrials transportation subsector (AAL -2.55%, ALK -1.7%, LUV -1.6%)
  • Leaders: Utilities, Communication Services and Health Care outperformed. Electric companies buoyed Utilities for the second day running: Constellation Energy +3.05%, Duke Energy +2.7%, PG&E +2.6%. Telecom stocks fared better than Apple on the day, buoying Comm Services: T-Mobile +3.6%, Meta +2.36%, Verizon +.7%.
  • Technicals: The E-mini S&P contract key resistance has been defined at 4547.75, Sep 1 high. A break is required to reinstate the recent bullish theme. Note that recent gains stalled at the area of resistance around the former bull channel base - drawn from the Mar 13 low. The line intersects at 4542.44. This is a bearish development and a continuation lower would expose key support at 4350.00, the Aug 18 low.

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