T3’s Market Wrap: Tech Stocks In Focus Ahead of Apple Earnings

Tech's been a sore spot for the bulls in the past few days.

And beginning today, it felt like we could be in for another round of pain ahead of Apple's (AAPL) big earnings report after the close today.

The Nasdaq Composite dipped at the open, underperforming all the major averages before it popped to show some relative strength this afternoon.

The Russell 2000 was even more impressive with a big 1.4% gain at its intraday peak.

Biotechnology was also impressive, powering up well over 1%.

However, not all was perfect today. The banks were in negative territory.

The US dollar had a nice bounce today on strong economic data. The Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index hit 65.5 in July, blowing away thed 62.3 consensus.

But even with the dollar's bounce, gold actually rose.

It's no secret that gold is severely out of favor.

Interestingly, in what feels like the type of news you see around a bottom, Vanguard is turning its back on gold and mining stocks as part of a restructuring:

From a press release:

The $2.3 billion Vanguard Precious Metals and Mining Fund (VGPMX) will be renamed to Vanguard Global Capital Cycles Fund as part of a restructuring intended to broaden the fund's mandate and diversify its portfolio. 

So Vanguard is renaming its metals and mining fund, and turning it more into a global commodities fund.

A single anecdote like this is not a good basis for an investment thesis. But it's clearly a sign that gold is hated, and sometimes, hated assets are attractive ones.

In earnings news, Procter & Gamble (PG) fell after reporting disappointing results.

High-profile momentum name Shopify (SHOP) dropped on its poor guidance.

Pharma giant Pfizer (PFE) rose after delivering a solid earnings beat.

Agricultural company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) also had a nice earnings-driven bounce, as did energy company BP (BP).

Apple's report today after the close could dictate where the market goes near-term, but overall, earnings season is still looking pretty good based on the aggregate numbers from FactSet.