The Nasdaq has been flirting with busting past the 5000 mark for days now, but investors are blaming one stock on holding it back: AAPL.
Apple shares have ballooned to their highest value ever over the past month. After weeks of growth, the stock’s performance has been flattish the last few days, which is a big problem for Wall Street because Apple now accounts for 10% of the Nasdaq’s index value.
Apple’s stock inconveniently weakened on Wednesday right as Nasdaq was about to pass the 5,000 barrier. Wednesday’s 2.6% decline of Apple shares was the second straight day of losses for Apple shares, which investors are now blaming for snapping the Nasdaq composite’s 10-day streak of gains.
Nasdaq hasn’t been above 5000 since the Internet bubble era. The index posted 5,048 in March 2000, just before the dot-com bubble burst.
The tech-heavy stock index is up 16 points today, while Apple is also up $1.14 (0.88%) right now. Apple’s weight is now twice that of the second most important stock on the index – Microsoft. USA Today also points out that if you took an unweighted percentage of the Nasdaq 100 by the biggest stocks, Apple would account for 14% of the total market value. If you measured it this way, Apple is still two times bigger than its nearest competitor – Google.
Bottomline: As Apple goes, so does the Nasdaq.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
