When Apple is down, the pips squeak!

One of the mainstays of the US stock market over the past ten years has been the strength of the ‘big tech’ stocks.

In complete contrast to the end of the last Millennium when large construction, engineering and manufacturing conglomerates dominated and the world’s richest men were heads of Japanese electronic goods companies, large American car manufacturers or shipping giants, today they are cryptocurrency influencers, web moguls and social media companies.

Silicon Valley’s ‘big tech’ internet giants such as Amazon, Facebook and Twitter have been popular and very stable performers for many years now, and whilst it is not specifically an internet company but a computer software and smartphone manufacturer, Apple is often viewed in the same light as the internet’s big hitters.

Today, however, Apple stock is down 1.14% at the US market open, this decline having taken place during the New York trading session yesterday.

Over the course of the past five days, Apple stock is down 5.99% to $159.78 per share, which represents a sustained period of decline for a usually very stable stock which spent most of 2021 gradually climbing whilst other markets such as commodities and hospitality stock were in volatile turmoil.

Just three weeks ago, Apple was valued at $3 trillion, and the genius of leader Tim Cook lauded, the man who ordered his workers back to their desks famously last September and objected to paying very high salaries for what he considered to be inefficiency, with some degree of pushback from many members of staff.

There is no doubt that high quality leadership and a very efficient corporate structure has led Apple to the strong position that it has held for so long, and given that just three weeks ago it was at lofty heights, and now is beginning to decline, this is big news for the US markets.

Last week was Apple’s worst week since February 2021, and some analysts are looking toward a weaker dollar as a potential antidote to the downward direction.

This may appear not of great relevance, but there is rationale behind it. Since Apple hit the milestone $3 trillion market capitalization on January 3, its stock has gone down a worrying 13%, while the S&P 500 has lost 11% with the well capitalized tech company shares taking a particularly strong hit.

These high value companies that often lead the major indices in the US have been the pillar of strength whilst hospitality stock and airlines as well as other areas of global business that has been subject to restrictions have been extremely volatile over the past 18 months, however with them in the doldrums and now Apple on the decline, the volatility in the tech stock market on major indices across the US is having a noticeable effect!