UPDATE

🌤️ Happy Wednesday

Good afternoon. Now that we’re about halfway into the week, we hope your Monday and Tuesday went well.

We’re also halfway into August, meaning summer break is almost at an end, and many are heading back to school or starting a new position. If you are heading into a new school or work year, we wish you the best of luck!

P.S. Scroll to the bottom of this issue to see our new games section!

Read time: 2.5 minutes

WEEK IN REVIEW

📈 Market Performance

S&P 500 (5-day), via Google Finance

Last week, we took a break from discussing the performance of the S&P 500 and instead overviewed the Nasdaq composite. One of the major points mentioned was that indices may have similar up or downtrends, even though they track a different combination of stocks.

• Because the Nasdaq weighs tech stocks heavily, and many tech companies are in the top 500 by market cap, these indices have similar movements. You can read our full deep dive into the Nasdaq in Issue #32 | This Tech Might Be Lagging.

Since the end of last week, the S&P has slowly begun dropping in value. Since the beginning of this summer, we have tracked the index as it has pushed past the 4,300, 4,400, and 4,500 point marks. However, some progress seems to be reversing as the index is back to 60 points below 4,500.

🍎 A Hit to Heavy Hitters

Apple CEO Tim Cook by ACC District, via flickr

The largest company in both the Nasdaq and the S&P has also been losing some gains. Apple Inc. (AAPL) has lost approximately 8.5% stock value in the past month, and it’s unclear why that’s happening. The company exceeded its June earnings per share (EPS) by 5% and just met revenue expectations, so investors should have confidence that the company is doing well.

• One theory is that the company’s stock was marginally overvalued after some product announcements during June’s WWDC, and some of this movement is a correction of those gains.

Other companies comprising the S&P have also seen losses in stock value in this time frame. Bank of America (BAC) has seen a 5.01% drop since last Thursday, and Ford (F) saw a whopping 6.53% drop. What’s clear is that this decline in companies making up the S&P is a cross-industry problem and may eat away at gains made throughout the summer.

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BRAIN TEASERS

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Thanks again for reading!

Nothing MARK IT. publishes constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information published by MARK IT. constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed.