Apple is the world’s most valuable public company, days from unveiling new software and hardware at WWDC, in the middle of its hottest iPhone cycle in years, and having just debuted its biggest iMac redesign in years. So all is good, then?
Well, apparently not. In fact, a report Friday notes that Apple stock is currently on track for its longest weekly losing streak in more than two-and-a-half years. Because the stock market works in mysterious ways.
Update: AAPL closed at $125.89 Friday, up $2.35 (or 1.9%). So much for the losing streak.
A report from MarketWatch outlines the situation:
“Shares of Apple Inc. edged up 0.3% in premarket trading Friday, but remained on track to suffer a sixth-straight weekly loss, ahead of the technology giant’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next week. That would be the longest such loss streak since the eight-week stretch through the week ended Nov. 23, 2018. The stock needs to gain 0.9% Friday, to at least $124.61, to snap the weekly loss streak.”
At time of initial writing, AAPL was trading at $123.54. MarketWatch’s story notes that one reason for the decline may be the Epic Games v. Apple trial, and general concerns about Cupertino’s monopolistic App Store practices.
Whether that’s actually the reason isn’t 100% clear, though. Of all the tech giants, Apple is seemingly in the best position to thrive during the current tech backlash. For instance, Apple did not announce this year that its iconic CEO is stepping down, as Amazon did. Apple is not been mired in data privacy controversies like Facebook. And so on and so forth. But, nonetheless, Apple stock has been the worst performer this year as far as Big Tech is concerned.
Do I understand it? Not really. At least since CEO Tim Cook took over a decade ago, there’s been a certain vocal minority of analysts who predict, constantly, that Apple’s best days are behind it. The company passed its peak, they say, and ready to decline.
They said it before Apple hit a $1 trillion market cap. And before it reached $2 trillion. Now some analysts predict Apple’s market cap will hit $3 trillion, and yet doomsayers continue to cast doubt on Cupertino.
There are certainly reasons to be cautious about tech right now as the pandemic boom subsides for some companies, and the global chip shortage causes problems. But Apple’s weathered far, far worse. And, let’s not forget: We’re not too far away from the iPhone 13, a device that Apple sounds very, very excited about.
Source: MarketWatch
We originally published this post at 6:46 a.m. PST on June 4, 2021. We updated it after the market closed.
