Chart Of The Day: Be The First To Know Of Apple’s Fall

 | Sep 13, 2017 07:17AM ET

By Pinchas Cohen

We interrupt our regularly scheduled series of the 10 sectors that make up the S&P 500 Index, to take advantage of an extraordinary event.

The release of the new iPhone was to be Apple’s gala event of the decade, but industry reactions suggest Tim Cook failed to regenerate the big-bang Steve Jobs created 10 years ago, and traders quantified this disappointment with letting down the stock and bucking the trend, as all three major US averages made record closes.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) initially gapped up 0.65 percent and extended its jump to 1.50 percent ahead of the event, anticipating being wowed. When investors found themselves underwhelmed they overwhelmed the exchange with sell orders, sending the price into a 3.13 percent freefall in the one hour and 6 minutes, from 13:56 EDT to 15:02 EDT.

Dip buyers took advantage, and/or short coverings took a profit, paring losses, to settle at 0.40 percent. To appreciate this number requires a benchmark. We’ll provide you with several:

  • The S&P 500 Index gained 0.34 percent, even after having been slowed down by Apple’s 3.94 percent weight on the index – as it registered a back-to back record high, record close, as well as close only 24 points below the high, in a sign of trader decisiveness.
  • The NASDAQ 100 advanced 0.25 percent, even after having been dragged down by Apple’s whopping 12.29 percent weighing on the index; the triple weight on the NASDAQ 100 weighed more heavily on the average than on the S&P 500 Index.
  • Finally, even the specific Technology sector on the S&P 500 climbed 0.24 percent, even after Apple’s rock-heavy 15.38 percent weighing on the sub-index.