Drop in Apple shares due to weak iPhone X demand drags Wall Street lower

Wall Street's main indexes came under pressure on Tuesday following a 2.8 per cent drop in Apple's shares on a report of weak iPhone X demand.

Apple will slash its sales forecast for its flagship phone in the current quarter to 30 million units, down from what it said was an initial plan of 50 million units, Taiwan's Economic Daily reported, citing unidentified sources.

That, along with some bearish brokerage calls on iPhone X demand, put its shares on track for their worst single-day percentage fall since Aug. 10.

Shares of companies that supply parts to Apple, including Broadcom, Skyworks Solutions, Finisar and Lumentum Holdings, fell between 1.8 per cent and 3.5 per cent.

The S&P technology index fell 0.9 per cent, the only loser among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors.

Most markets around the world, including parts of Europe and Asia, were shut on Tuesday. Trading volumes are also expected to be light in the holiday week.

"It's going to be slow trading for most of the week. A market that's going to stay within a trading range, we could have a plus or a negative day, but nothing exciting," said Peter Cardillo, the chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York.

At 9:34 a.m. ET (1434 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 8.32 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 24,745.74 and the S&P 500 was down 2.4 points, or 0.09 per cent, at 2,680.94.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 29.11 points, or 0.42 per cent, at 6,930.86.

Sucampo Pharma surged 6 per cent after Mallinckrodt said it would acquire the drugmaker for $1.2 billion, to gain access to its constipation drug Amitiza. Mallinckrodt shares rose 4.3 per cent.
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Dow, Nasdaq eke out record highs over Trump's proposed tax reforms

US stocks inched higher on Monday, with the Dow and the Nasdaq hitting fresh records, on rising optimism over President Donald Trump's proposed tax overhaul.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 7.43 points, or 0.03 percent, to 22,781.1. The S&P 500 gained 2.06 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,551.39. The Nasdaq Composite added 7.26 points, or 0.11 percent, to 6,597.44.
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US stocks suffered $8.9 bn outflow as Trump stirs trouble in White House

Investors ditched almost $9 billion of US equities as political turmoil in Washington built up in the past week, Bank of America Merrill Lynch figures showed on Friday.

Funds invested in US equities saw outflows of $8.9 billion in the week to Wednesday- their third straight week of outflows -- while those dedicated to European stocks added $1.1 billion, the largest in 39 weeks and the ninth straight week of inflows.

"Washington DC disruption: new risk ... Washington political malaise causes capital flight from US," BAML summarised, referring to White House battles over the struggles over alleged links to Russia and to the removal of the FBI director.

The big winner for the week, meanwhile, were global tech stocks, now enjoying the biggest annualised inflows since the dot-com bubble.

Tech stocks raked in $1 billion in the week to Wednesday in their 11th straight week of inflows, BAML said in its regular 'Flow Show' analysis.

It also noted that the Nasdaq internet index, a modified market capitalisation-weighted index designed to track the largest and most liquid US online firms, was running at an annual rate of 75 per cent gains year to date.

It expressed some concern about this.

"(The) longer it takes the economy and yields to pick-up, greater (the) risk of tech mania," BAML said.

Investors also remained in emerging markets, with equities adding $3.9 billion in a ninth week of gains while developing market debt saw inflows of $1.6 billion in their 16th straight positive week.

"Emerging markets equal year-to-date flow winner and year-to-date return winner as weaker dollar, lower yields overwhelm China credit fears," BAML said in its note.

The data, however, was collected before a broad sell of roiled emerging markets on Thursday following allegations that Brazil's President Michel Temer condoned bribes to silence a key witness in a corruption probe.

Overall, bond funds attracted $9.7 billion of inflows in the week to Wednesday, with around two thirds of that ($6.6 billion) going into investment grade funds, BAML said.
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