Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt lowered iPhone sales estimates to 212 million on “meaningfully lower” average selling prices, compared to 231 million last year.
Moreover, there are signs that consumers are upgrading phones less frequently, along with a slowdown in demand and expectations that the new iPhone 5SE and Apple Watch are not taking off.
Tech “is clearly in a funk. Only one tech company has gone public so far this year — and it was a flop. It wasn’t a sexy startup either. It was SecureWorks, the cybersecurity spinoff of privately held Dell,” adds CNN Money.
Investors looking to skirt some of the single-stock risk affecting cap-weighted tech sector ETFs can consider funds such as the Guggenheim S&P Equal Weight Technology ETF (NYSEArca: RYT). According to FactSet, Apple could account for more than half of the 8.3% decline in technology earnings projected for the first quarter.
Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of QQQ.