Friday's weak action has carried over as the primary focus of market players remains on the inverted yield curve. The Mueller report has received much attention but doesn't seem to be having much market impact. The political battles will remain heated regardless of greater clarity as to what occurred.
Apple (AAPL) has been leading the action today. It reversed after the open as some market players anticipate a 'sell the news' reaction to its new product and service event at 1 pm ET. It is well anticipated that Apple will be announcing a news subscription service as well as a TV streaming service. There is plenty of competition in the content area and there are some analysts that are skeptical about how well Apple well compete with the likes of Netflix (NFLX) and AT&T's (T) Time Warner.
Technically Apple is set-up in basically the same way that the S&P 500 is. The stock has had a great run off the lows at the first of the year and is now hitting resistance at its 200-day simple moving average. There isn't much nearby support but it is a stock that will always attract big institutional money that needs to put capital to work when they are fearful of missing out.
It is likely that analysts will be upbeat about Apple's new offerings and we should see some target adjustments tomorrow. However, today it is mainly about traders trying to anticipate short term reactions to the event at 1 pm ET.
Overall market action is poor with breadth running about 2000 gainers to 3600 decliners. New 12-month lows exceed new highs. There is some strength in gold and Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM) is performing well. My Stock of the Week is Axsome Therapeutics (AXSM) and it's performing very well so far. I've taken a few stops and have cut my long exposure so far but there are some pullbacks that are starting to look enticing.
Apple is going to drive overall market direction today and we have to wait for the 1:00 pm ET event before we have a better feel where things are headed.
(Apple is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS member club. Want to be alerted before Jim Cramer buys or sells AAPL? Learn more now.)
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