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Daily Market Update – September 9, 2014 (Close) In a week when there’s not much planned economic news and where it appears as if the geo-political news may be muted, today was destined to stand out. Instead of anything really important, the driver of news was the Apple’s product releases presentation that begans early in the afternoon. There was a time, just a few years ago that the market’s daily performance was essentially determined by Apple’s performance. You could have done away with the other 499 companies and just tracked Apple’s share performance day in and day out and you would have had a great idea of how the market performed that day, at least in direction. Those days are gone, so it’s not too likely that anything coming out of today’s meeting will have much of an impact on the rest of the market. Too bad, because the market could have used some help today, especially as it deteriorated in the afternoon, while Apple was at least able to hold its ground, having alternated between disappointment and satisfaction. After a mildly negative day yesterday, but without any real sign of building sentiment, the pre-open trading looked like it would be another day beginning with some degree of indecision. There was really no reason to believe that it would crumble as the day wore on, but I never got a comfortable feeling at any point during the day to part with any money. After a reasonably busy week of trading last week, I think that yesterday’s activity in adding new positions may mark the week’s high point, at a time when my cash reserves have gone to a recent low point. In the face of any continuing indecision I would prefer to keep some funds back for the ability to be an opportunist and wouldn’t bemoan missing any unforeseen sudden spike higher in the broader market, as long as it also takes me along for the ride and also brings some of this week’s expiring positions in better shape to either get rolled over or be assigned, preferably the latter.Additionally, going along for that kind of a ride would also hopefully offer an opportunity to be opportunistic with other members of the portfolio that have been waiting for their chance to contribute to the generation of income. However, today didn’t go that way. So while having already expected a slow day today, like many others I still kept an eye on potential opportunities that may have popped up, but fell into the trap of getting sucked in by the Apple event, even watching the watch the countdown clock that was featured on CNBC. While not particularly interested in Apple at the moment and not too excited about the hype, there’s also the realization that there can be some kind of trickle down. The Apple event can then bring derivative events, as people smash open the products to determine what’s inside and try to figure out who the derivative winners and losers are, which can include hardware and software makers and this time around, possibly even a service provider, such as PayPal, eBay’s very profitable division. While I’m not a very active consumer, I did hope that Apple introduced some kind of new product that gets people excited and digging into their pockets, although it’s not really clear that if they do it would be with anything other than money that may have otherwise been earmarked After it was all said and done I’m really not sure what they introduced that’s new and innovative. As far as their much anticipated “apple Watch” goes, it won’t be hitting the stores until 2015, so any thoughts of a “must have” item in time for Christmas is off the books and won’t be offering too much of a boost this year. Just as with the stock market and all of the talk about money on the sidelines that may drive shares higher, the retail market needs the same thing as a spur and that could be the sort of thing that would drive sideline investment back to work. It’s now been a while since I’ve been fully invested and would love to be so, once again. Who knows, maybe tomorrow begins that day, now that today didn’t. But as far as seeing the retail sector expand as all of those people getting back to work start getting back on track for the discretionary spending that really drives everything and fuels this market even higher? Thanks for nothing, Apple.
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