Forex Flash: Waning demand of electronics hurts tech stalwarts such as Apple – Deutsche Bank

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - After the recent tumble in Apple's share price, including a 2.7% drop yesterday, the tech giant has now well and truly lost its title as the largest company by market cap to Exxon Mobil. Exxon owes that crown more to Apple's 44% drop since its September peak, than to its own share price performance, which has been mostly range, bound during that same period. More broadly, we've seen a sizeable underperformance in US tech stocks this year with the tech sector virtually flat YTD against an 8%+ gain in the broader S&P500.

According to Macro Strategy Analysts J. Reid and C. Tan at Deutsche Bank, “We should note however, that most of underperformance has come in recent weeks probably driven by news of poor demand for smartphones/PCs and disappointing earnings updates from the likes of Yahoo! and eBay.” Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see whether this divergence continues throughout the remainder of the reporting season.