Tech stocks have been battered lately but as in the past Apple just might of saved tech stocks, at least for the time being. After the close, Apple reported an astonishing $53 billion in revenues growing at a 17% clip. What’s more is Apple’s profits rose more than 30% coming in at a whopping $11.5 billion in profits. I thought there is a thing called the law of large numbers? Apparently not at Apple! People don’t realize how hard it is to grow a company of this size in the way Apple continues to grow. Year after year, quarter after quarter, simply amazing. The question now becomes is yesterday’s earnings beat by Apple enough to put a floor in tech stocks. Technology stocks have been taken out to the woodshed as of late with seemingly no end in sight, until yesterday. What I will be looking for today and for the rest of the week is whether or not companies continue get sold off after their earnings release which has been the trend this particular earnings reporting season.
In my last blog I eluded to the possibility of a breakout of the S&P 500 (chart) or a triple top fade in the index. Quite honestly neither really happened, at least not yet. The S&P 500 (see chart below) essentially has been trading in a range between 2800 and 2850. Earnings reporting season has yet to be the catalyst for such a breakout or breakdown for that matter. Triple tops are very powerful to the technical set-up on any given index or stock for that matter. Apple’s earnings could very well be the catalyst for the markets to once again challenge the current triple top formation. Now that we are in August I do think we will get that answer soon enough. I do expect volatility to pick up a bit here in August which is not uncommon for this time of year. The SPY’s (chart) which tracks the S&P 500 (chart) has demonstrated support at its 20-day moving average which is essentially $279.50 and the overhead resistance is essentially the $285.00 zone. Let’s see if the S&P can break away from either line. Good luck to all 🙂
~George
