Tag Archives: apple

Apple Steals ‘Biggest Stock’ Crown As Alphabet Loses Search Chief

Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) gain and Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) fall Wednesday — as Google’s head of search exits — made Apple the biggest stock of all, again — and Apple widened its lead Thursday. At the closing bell Wednesday, Apple stock was up almost 2% to 96.35, giving it a market cap over $534 billion, and Alphabet stock was down 4% at 749.38, with a market cap a little over $515 billion. The trend continued Thursday. In early trading in the stock market today , Apple was up a fraction (market cap near $538 billion) and Alphabet was down 1.5% (market cap near $506 billion). Alphabet initially wrested the top market value title from Apple mid-Monday ahead of its fourth-quarter earnings report, the first that detailed business outside Alphabet’s main Google unit. The two stocks have been jostling for supremacy since. Google Head Of Search Leaving Google’s senior vice president for search, Amit Singhal, wrote in a Google Plus blog post Wednesday that he is leaving Feb. 26, after starting with the company when it was “a small startup” in 2000. “As I entered the fifteenth year of working at Google, I’ve been asking myself the question, ‘what would you want to do for the next fifteen?’ The answer has overwhelmingly been: give back to others. It has always been a priority for me to give back to people who are less fortunate, and make time for my family amidst competing work constraints — but on both fronts, I simply want to give and do more,” Singhal wrote. “Now is a good time to make this important life change. Things are in amazing shape. Search is stronger than ever, and will only get better in the hands of an outstanding set of senior leaders who are already running the show day-to-day.” Google engineering VP John Giannandrea will take Singhal’s place , Re/Code noted, adding that Giannandrea leads Google’s sprawling research and artificial intelligence efforts, and that Google is now merging the research efforts with search, indicating the priority of machine learning at Alphabet. Oh what a journey! Fifteen amazing years at @google . Time for me to take the next turn. https://t.co/TjZhFG1bm6 — Amit Singhal (@theamitsinghal) February 3, 2016 Apple, Alphabet On Their ‘A’ Game? Apple, which gets an IBD Composite Rating of 68 out of a possible 99, was in the lead at the end of Monday’s regular trading as the largest stock of all. Then Alphabet climbed to a $555 billion market cap in extended trading after the close Monday, as investors cheered its Q4 report, vs. Apple at a $533 billion market value. Companies that have held the largest-stock spot in the past include General Electric ( GE ), General Motors ( GM ) and IBM ( IBM ). Alphabet, which gets a best-possible IBD Composite Rating of 99, is down about 3% so far this year, owing to Wednesday’s reversal. YouTube video, mobile search and programmatic ads helped drive Alphabet revenue up 18% from a year earlier to $21.32 billion in its Q4 report, where analysts expected $20.76 billion. Earnings ex items lifted 26% to $8.67 a share, rocketing past the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for $8.09. Image provided by Shutterstock .

Moby-Markets

“Thar she blows!” “Where away?” “Three points off the lee bow, sir.” “Raise up your wheel. Steady!” Illustration: I.W. Taber. Source: Wikipedia It’s easy to become obsessed. Melville’s famous novel Moby-Dick describes Captain Ahab’s obsession with a giant albino sperm whale. On a previous voyage, the white whale had bitten off Ahab’s leg, leaving him with a prosthesis. Ahab goes on a mission of revenge, casting his spell over the rest of the crew. His fanaticism robs him of all caution. In the end, Moby-Dick destroys the ship and drags Ahab to the bottom. When you’ve suffered a loss in the market, the best thing to do is to put it behind you. Sometimes it’s because the nature of the economy has changed. Sometimes there was an unexpected development – new management, or some external factor. Sometimes you simply miscalculated. Whatever the reason, it’s important to understand that markets are forward-looking. They take current circumstances and future expectations and try to discount all the expected cash-flows to a present value. That’s what market prices represent. Click to enlarge S&P 500 for the last 2 years. Source: Bloomberg So when they move significantly, it’s because the outlook is different. A stock doesn’t know that you own it, and it certainly doesn’t care what the price was when you bought it. Investors can get obsessed with “getting out even.” But that’s a mistake. The only reason to worry about where you bought a stock is to manage your tax-liability. In the midst of the conflict, Ahab was given a final chance to give up his fanatical quest, but he rejects this – to his doom. Investors need to be sure they’re thinking and planning rationally – and not obsessively.

5 ETFs To Protect Your Portfolio

China’s stock market continues to see selling pressure as their economy slows. Oil’s weakness not only threatens oil and gas companies with bankruptcy, but puts major economies in jeopardy of a further slowdown. Uncertainty surrounding the primaries and the presidential election is causing confusion as to what the policies of the United States will be in the future. And now, the Zika Virus is upon us, a travel and leisure nightmare that the media will run with and prevent people from traveling. The risks and uncertainties abound are affecting global markets and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The situation could remedy itself, but it is more likely that the pain felt in January is not over. If the January lows are tested and fail, there is potential for significant downside. This doesn’t mean investors have to ditch their portfolios, as there are strategies that can help protect from downside. An options strategy is an ideal way to protect against loss. Inverse ETFs can also offer investors a way to profit as the market heads lower, thus protecting against their overall portfolio. Below I picked some aggressive ETFs that would help one profit when the market goes lower. These must not be thought of as investments, but rather temporary trades. When the market eventually turns around and rallies, these instruments go down fast. The mentality one must have is to get in and out quickly as the market fluctuates. Trading Fear When markets get scared, they can often overreact or panic. The VIX is a fear gauge that measures how much fear there is in the markets. Traders will buy VIX instruments to hedge against panic. One of the most popular VIX instruments is the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSEARCA: VXX ). This ETN provides investors with exposure to short-term VIX futures. Essentially, when the market goes down and fear increases, this ETN will go higher. The chart below shows the last six months versus the S&P 500 and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ). A VXX investor would benefit as Apple and the S&P 500 goes down, and lose as they come back up. Trading Oil Proshares UltraShort Oil & Gas (NYSEARCA: DUG ) is an ETF that seeks investment results of the daily performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas Index. This instrument will essentially go higher when oil and gas stocks go lower, which seems to be every day lately. For those that are nervous about their positions in oil and gas companies, there is opportunity here. DUG will head higher as shares of those companies head lower, thus offsetting losses. If the price of oil continues lower, oil and gas companies will have difficulty being profitable anytime soon. There will undoubtedly be pressure on oil companies to either shutdown some operations or even declare bankruptcy. If this scenario pans out, the ETF will head even higher from here. The chart below shows DUG versus Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM ) and the S&P 500. Trading the S&P 500 For those that want to take a more broad-based approach, they can utilize the Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bear 3x Shares (NYSEARCA: SPXS ). This ETF will reflect 300% of the daily move of the S&P 500 index. The last three months have been kind to the ETF as the selloff has pushed it 30% higher, while the S&P is down close to 10%. Trading the Russell Small caps have been devastated over the last three months. An investor exposed to smaller companies would have done well in the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3x (NYSEARCA: TZA ). The ETF is up close to 50% since the year started and if the Russell takes another leg down, it will continue on this path. This ETF, very similar to SPXS, will reflect 300% of the daily move of the Russell 2000 index. Trading Financials Both large and small banks have been hammered so far this year. Exposure to oil companies with potentially bad loans has investors fleeing the banks in anticipation of defaults. If an investor is exposed to financials, it would be wise to protect against down moves with the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3x (NYSEARCA: FAZ ). This ETF will reflect 300% of the daily move of the Russell 1000 Financial Services Index. The chart below shows FAZ versus JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM ) and how a position in FAZ would offset any losses in JPM. In Summary When markets head lower, these ETFs and ETNs will do well. Use them to profit or soften the blow of your overall portfolio. I can’t stress enough that these instruments are not investments, but rather temporary trading vehicles. They aren’t for rookies and should be carefully monitored with the day to day fluctuations of the market. Original Post