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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Apple continues to push the markets around

The Dow, which opened higher by about 100 points off of the open this morning, is only up about 45 points at the moment, or by about 0.35%, while the S&P 500 is higher by 14 points, or about 1%, and the NASDAQ is up about 60 points, or 2%.  Apple, which is a large component of the NASDAQ (very tech-heavy), and of the S&P 500, is distorting the overall market performance because it has become such a large weighting in these two indexes.  Something will need to be adjusted within the formulas used to calculate these indexes, unless Apple falls pretty dramatically, because we are not getting a true sense of what the overall market is doing anymore.  Broad market indexes like the S&P 500, which holds 500 different stocks, and the NASDAQ Composite, which has around 3,000 stocks in it, are intended as a gauge of the entire stock market, and by extension, the entire U.S. economy.  Apple is the tail wagging the dog, so something will need to be done to adjust these indexes; otherwise people will start calculating them ex-Apple.

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