Buzz on Business for Wednesday, December 3^rd, 2024.

Is it just me, or does it seem that every single year, someone on Wall Street predicts that iPhone sales are falling? Along with the sky.

Stock Market Report

Apple, the biggest stock in the history of Earth, fell three and a half percent on some analyst’s downgrade and pretty much dragged the rest of the market down with it.

• The Dow Jones Industrials managed a small gain. They were up 26 points and closed at 37,715.
• The S+P 500, not so much! It was down twenty-seven points, six-tenths of a percent and closed at 4,743.
• The Nasdaq Composite got the worst of it. The techs were off one point six percent, that’s 245 points, and closed back below 15,000 at 14,766.
• The RSP, which is a fund that tracks the S+P 500 Equal Weight Index, managed a small gain. It closed at $157.85, up a nickel.
• And the SOXL, which is a fund that tracks the Semiconductors but with three-to-one leverage, we’ll be following it, and the RSP, as part of the experiment in risk management we’re running this year, was off a whopping 10.7%. It closed at $28.04, down $3.36.

Bond Markets

• The yield on the two-year Treasury was up seven basis points. It now yields 4.322%.
• The yield on the twenty-year was up five ticks. It starts the day at 4.234%

Oil and Gold

• Oil was off eighty-six cents and closed at $70.44 a barrel.
• Gold was up a minuscule $1.66 and will now set you back $2073.40 a troy ounce.

Apple Downgrade: An Annual Event?

Tim Long, an analyst at Barclays, downgraded Apple before the opening bell yesterday. He claims that sales of the latest iPhone are below expectations, especially in China. The quote is classic analyst-speak. He wrote, “The biggest takeaway from the latest checks is incrementally worse data points out of China, together with developed markets remaining soft.” That is straight outta the Ministry of Truth!

His biggest takeaway? My biggest takeaway is that he made a previous report—sometime—and that this latest check showed that the previous report was wrong, so he’s making another report, and the market took this new one seriously for some reason. Sound about right?

That reason is likely that Apple stock was up nearly fifty percent last year. And it’s not some tiny penny stock either trading on the Vancouver Exchange. It’s the biggest company in the world. Fifty percent? Maybe shareholders were looking for a reason to take some profits, and this was it. If I was a betting man, and I’m not, I’d lay odds that iPhone sales will be fine. Maybe down a little. Maybe up a little. But, fine.

A Shaky Start, But Eyes on the Big Picture

Despite Apple's stumble, the overall market picture remains mixed. While tech and growth stocks took a hit, the Dow managed a small gain, highlighting the value of diversification. Investors should keep an eye on fourth quarter earnings and the economic calendar for further direction, although the market, corporate profits, and the economic environment are bullish, more or less. With Apple stock having risen so much last year, it's possible this pullback may be a healthy correction rather than a harbinger of doom and gloom. Although we admit, doom and gloom sells!