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XLK

Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF

6/19/2013, 4:57 PM ET

Quote & Headlines Market Currents StockTalk

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Wednesday, June 19, 10:53 AM "Sell in May and go into cyclicals," says Ralph Acampora after the last month. He reminds of an old adage saying sectors going down the least during a selloff become the new market leaders. During SPY's 5.2% decline from May 22-June 6, the best performers were Tech (XLK) and Industrials (XLI). The worst were Telecommunications (IYZ) and Utilities (XLU). This "rolling rotation" between sectors is necessary, he says, to give further life to the secular bull market begun in March 2009. 3 Comments
Saturday, June 8, 4:38 PM The percentage of the stock market now owned by hedge funds (5%) is the highest since Q2 2008, BofA Merrill Lynch finds in its Hedge Fund Quarterly Report. Hedge funds reduced cash holdings to the Q2 2007 trough of 4.3%, and raised net equity exposure to the Q2 2007 peak of 59%. Their largest exposure is to consumer discretionary stocks (XLY) followed by IT (XLK) and financials (XLF). 23 Comments
Friday, May 31, 7:50 PM Look for any piece of news that smacks of an improving economy to send stocks falling next week, warns CNBC's Jim Cramer. Why? Big money investors will interpret any positive economic signs as a signal that the Fed is about to pull back economic stimulus rather than risk runaway inflation. Still, he says, there may be opportunities in the pullback, particularly in the bank, tech and industrial spaces. Just says away from anything with a higher yield, like utilities and MLP's. 37 Comments [U.S. Economy, Quick Ideas]
Tuesday, May 28, 7:41 AM "Tech (XLK, QQQ) is where cash goes to die," says Bill Smead as research shows massively over-capitalized companies don't perform any better than undercapitalized ones. "There's not enough tension - you don't make very good decisions what to with cash when you've got too much of it - unless you're Warren Buffett." Example #1 is Microsoft (MSFT): "They've probably lost more money in the last 13 years in the online business than any single corporation ... in history." 3 Comments [Tech]
Friday, May 17, 8:13 AM Thomas Lee lifts his year-end S&P 500 (SPY) forecast to 1,715 from 1,580 as the bull has already outrun his expectations. His team sees clues economic performance is picking up, including the outperformance of semiconductors (XSD) vs. transports (IYT), and the steepening of the 10 year/30 year Treasury curve. Risk/reward is particularly appealing in tech (XLK), healthcare (XLV), and financials (XLF). Comment!
Wednesday, May 15, 1:23 AM IDC cuts its 2013 IT spending growth forecast to 4.9% from 5.5%, citing macro issues and weak PC demand; 2012 growth was 5.6%. Gartner, which includes a bigger array of products/services in its numbers, forecast 4.1% growth last month. IDC now sees U.S. software spending (MSFT, ORCL) growing 6%, down from a prior 7%. Storage hardware revenue (EMC, NTAP) is only expected to grow 2.4%, down from 2012's 6.1%, and carrier spending on networking gear (CSCO, JNPR, ALU, CIEN) is expected to grow just 1.1% vs. 5.8% in 2012. Recent earnings reports and warnings (I, II, III, IV) help explain the subdued outlook. 2 Comments [Tech]
Friday, May 3, 4:55 PM The week's ETF movers - Gainers: XLK +3.9%. QQQ +3.7%. EPI +3.6%. EWY +3.2%. ILF +3.1%.
ETF Losers: GAZ -4.6%. UNG -4.2%. VXX -2.8%. GDXJ -2.4%. TLT -2.0%. Comment! [On the Move]
Friday, May 3, 12:54 PM Stocks remain sharply higher midday (SPY +1.2%), with the year's leaders - healthcare (XLV +0.7%), utilities (XLU +0.2%), and staples (XLP +0.7%) - lagging, and the year's laggers - industrials (XLI +2.1%), tech (XLK +1.1%), and energy (XLE +1.9%) - leading. Treasurys (TLT -2.1%) are suffering one of their worst days of the year, and broader fixed income (AGG -0.3%). 1 Comment
Monday, April 29, 12:13 PM "Which has a higher P/E - Procter & Gamble (PG) or Google (GOOG)," asks the WSJ's Tom Lauricella. Enthusiasm for anything with yield has driven the P-E ratios of dividend payers (DVY) like P&G maybe way too high. Techs (XLK) with double-digit earnings growth, no debt, and massive cash balances trade at 12x, says MFS' James Swanson, while a utility (XLU) in Ohio is at 16x. "How far do you go with this game?" "Pretty far," says Templeton's Donald Taylor. "The macro environment (causing this) is not at all likely to change anytime soon." 7 Comments [Quick Ideas]
Friday, April 26, 8:34 AM The beginning of a bigger move? Two of the year's three strongest performing sectors - healthcare (XLV) and consumer staples (XLP) - are down on the week as the three weakest sectors - energy (XLE), materials (XLB), and tech (XLK) - post gains of 3%-4.5%. 2 Comments
Wednesday, April 24, 3:58 PM Richard Pzena (PZN) - still heavily overweight financials (XLF) and mature tech (XLK) - makes his case for global banks in today's earnings call (transcript): With capital levels of 11-13% at JPM, C, and BCS double what they were pre-crisis, will regulators allow banks to earn a decent return on said capital? A definite "yes," says Pzena, seeing no reason demand for financial products won't continue to grow faster than GDP, and noting bank managers' "laser-like focus" on improving returns. An average price-to-book ratio of 0.7x combined with a modest ROE of 12-13% suggests fair value more than double current prices. Comment! [Financials, Tech, Quick Ideas]
Wednesday, April 24, 10:10 AM Turning 10 this week, the Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) has outperformed the SPY by 5,900 basis points since its launch. The RSP was one of the pioneers of equal-weighting - created in the aftermath of the 2000 bust to give investors exposure to stocks without so high a focus on large caps (the so-called "Cisco effect"). It's time for a renaming to the "Apple effect" as QQQE - the Nasdaq 100 Equal Weighted ETF - has outperformed the QQQ by 850 bps YTD. 3 Comments
Thursday, April 18, 1:08 PM Stocks have bounced off their worst levels, but remain lower in afternoon trade. Tech (QQQ -1%) shows particular weakness, with Apple dug in below $400 and Google off 1.8%. Verizon, however, is an area of tech sector strength, +3.7% following earnings. S&P 500 down just 0.3%. 1 Comment
Thursday, April 11, 7:03 PM The pace at which new technologies are disrupting companies makes it dangerous to be a value investor, argues VC Ashvin Bachireddy. As mobile devices, cloud software, e-commerce, and much else upends old business models, investing in a BlackBerry or an OfficeMax/Office Depot due to a low P/E can prove painful. "While there may still be opportunities for value investing, you need to be cautious of businesses that appear to be on a slow decline." His remarks seem prescient in light of what happened today to several PC-related names with low multiples. 14 Comments [Tech, Consumer, Quick Ideas]
Wednesday, April 3, 3:02 PM The S&P and DJIA may have just hit new all-time highs, but the Health Care (XLV), Consumer Staples (XLP) and Discretionary (XLY) sectors left their records in the dust some time ago. Technology (XLK) and Financials (XLF) are the two biggest sectors and it could be years, if not decades before they put in new records. Comment!
Wednesday, April 3, 1:58 PM Gartner forecasts global IT spending will grow 4.1% this year to $3.8T; that represents a pickup from 2012's 2.1% growth. Hardware is expected to grow 8% to $718B as mobile strength offsets PC/printer weakness, and enterprise software 6.4% to $297B. Gartner: "The global steady growth rates are a calm ocean that hides turbulent currents beneath ... there are clear winners and losers over the next three to five years, as we see more of a transition from PCs to mobile phones, from servers to storage, from licensed software to cloud, or the shift in voice and data connections from fixed to mobile." Comment! [Tech]