Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
Breaking a four-day losing streak, stocks gained ground Tuesday, with all 10 market sectors trending higher today. The bullishness comes before the minutes of the Federal Reserve's July meeting are released to the public tomorrow. The release should give Wall Street a better glimpse at the central bank's thoughts about tapering its monthly asset purchases. The S&P 500 Index (^GSPC 1.67%) added 6 points, or 0.4%, to end at 1,652 Tuesday, despite the poor showing by today's three laggards.
Shares of the specialty glass maker Corning (GLW +1.17%) lost 1.7%, slumping for a second straight day. Some investors worry that the innovative company, known for its Gorilla Glass product, will be threatened by the emergence of organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, screens. That technology, however, is far from being ready for primetime. One of the first market-ready OLED TVs retails for an obscene $9,000.
Deere (DE 2.50%) shed 1.5%, a day after Barclays removed the construction machinery maker from its favored list of industrial stocks. The main fear cited in Deere's fall from favor was the falling price of corn. Though that may be marginally good news for the American consumer (corn syrup is in everything!), it's not great for Deere's demand prospects.
Lastly, tech behemoth Apple (AAPL 1.45%) saw shares drop1.3% as the stock pulled back from a rally that's sent shares spiking more than 17% in the last month. The jump came as activist investor Carl Icahn revealed a large stake in the company and rumors regarding the next iteration of iPhone began swirling. One of the more recent whispers is that the company will be releasing a gold-colored iPhone, which may cater to the hue's popularity in China.
