U.S. equities overall are continuing their post-election rally on Thursday, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a new record high. But Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) isn’t coming along for the ride — and in fact, AAPL stock is getting knocked to the floor.
It’s a lack of sunshine and lollipops across much of the tech sector, actually. Popular stocks including Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), among others — are getting absolutely hammered.
The cause? Fears that president-elect Donald Trump’s tighter immigration policies will crimp the availability of the
skilled H-1B visas from countries like India. That’s because the tech sector relies on for cheap programmers.
The posterchild for the decline is the market’s single-most important stock: Apple. AAPL stock is off 3% as it falls further away from its 50-day moving average. This continues a two-month selloff that has seen Apple shares fall more than 9% from their early October high.
The decline has been fantastic news for Edge Pro subscribers, who are enjoying a 216% gain in their Nov $110 AAPL puts added on Wednesday.
AAPL Stock Away From the Charts
While Apple shares are a technical mess, the fundamentals aren’t looking so good either. The company’s recent earnings report was uninspiring, showing another year-over-year decline in iPhone sales. That’s being driven by a saturated smartphone market, tepid demand for the iPhone 7 (can’t blame people, really) and slowing China sales.
What’s worse, popularity of the cheaper, smaller iPhone SE is pulling down average iPhone selling prices — not unlike what happened when the iPad Mini was released and cannibalized sales of larger, more expensive iPads.
CEO Tim Cook just doesn’t have a clue. He’s more worried about social justice initiatives than channeling the true innovative spirit of Steve Jobs. A recent foray into electric vehicles has sputtered out. Competitors are nipping at their heels. And the company seems to be completely missing out on the VR/AR excitement.
Lower prices for AAPL stock are ahead.
Anthony Mirhaydari is founder of the Edge and Edge Pro investment advisory newsletters. A two-week and four-week free trial offer has been extended to InvestorPlace readers.
