Shares of Club holding Apple (APPL) slid to a new 52-week low in midday trading Wednesday, a move that matches our expectations for the iPhone maker. The stock, which is down nearly 30% year-to-date, has lost 3% just this week, versus a roughly 1.6% drawdown week-to-date for the overall tech sector. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is down roughly 34% this year. “I believe the stock is headed lower, not higher,” Jim Cramer said of Apple during the Club’s December “Monthly Meeting.” Like other Big Tech firms, Apple has been weighed down this year by the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, a stronger U.S. dollar that made its goods more expensive overseas and broader volatility in the global economy. But Apple has also been waylaid by iPhone production hold-ups at a key factory in China due to Covid-19 restrictions. While Beijing has moved to dramatically roll back its zero-Covid policy over the past month, analysts expect earnings to be squeezed in the near term, putting further pressure on the stock. Trading during this holiday week could also be impacted by so-called tax-loss harvesting , helping to drive the sell-off in the S & P 500 and Nasdaq the past two days. At the Club, we see China disruptions as a short-term headwind for Apple . But we think management could preannounce a week fiscal first quarter for the period ending this month by early January, given iPhone manufacturing delays weighed on holiday sales. That could be a clearing event, by which we finally see the bottom of this downward trend. Nonetheless, we maintain our position on Apple: Own it, don’t trade it. Despite the current hiccups, the company’s ever-strengthening ecosystem of products and services continues to attract consistent demand from a loyal customer base, making it a core holding we want to own in the long term. Shares of Apple were trading down 2.26% Wednesday afternoon, at $127.09 apiece. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long APPL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
A graph displaying the Apple stock price on a smartphone app.
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Shares of Club holding Apple (APPL) slid to a new 52-week low in midday trading Wednesday, a move that matches our expectations for the iPhone maker.
