Apple Decouples From Nasdaq as AI ‘Whack-a-Mole’ Grips Market
(Bloomberg) — It’s been nearly 20 years since Apple Inc. was this untethered from its tech peers, giving investors an appealing alternative to the artificial intelligence-fueled volatility that has gripped most other corners of the stock market in recent weeks.
Apple’s 40-day correlation to the Nasdaq 100 Index tumbled to 0.21 last week, the lowest since 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Its correlation with the benchmark has been on the decline since May, when it reached 0.92, as Apple’s decision to mostly sit out the AI arms race has turned it into an outlier compared with many of its rivals. A correlation of 1 means the two securities are moving in perfect unison, while a reading of -1 signals they are moving opposite each other.
Most Read from Bloomberg
“Apple’s lack of correlation is 100% a positive right now,” said Art Hogan, who helps oversee $25 billion as chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. “We’re in an environment of AI whack-a-mole, where investors are so nervous about what will be disrupted next they’re shooting first and asking questions later.”
For more than a month, investors have found themselves in an AI-fueled “doom loop,” flip-flopping between fears that the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on AI will not pay off and worries that industries from software to wealth management and logistics will be rendered obsolete by the same technology.
Apple, meanwhile, doesn’t fit the bill on either side of that angst. The iPhone-maker isn’t participating in the capex spending bonanza and doesn’t have a major business line that is seen at risk from the likes of Anthropic PBC’s Claude tools. While Apple has faced challenges with integrating AI into its products, the company is said to be accelerating development of three AI-powered hardware devices.
Results released last month also underscored some of the positive trends at the company. It reported record quarterly sales — with notable strength in its key iPhone product line — and gave a better-than-expected outlook for the current quarter. The company will host a product launch event in a couple weeks.
Apple’s decoupling from its tech peers was on full display Tuesday, when its 3.2% gain easily outperformed the 0.1% drop in the Nasdaq 100 Index. That marked the third time this month that the stock has bested the gauge by at least 3 percentage points, including a Feb. 4 drubbing that was the best in more than a year.
The stock is 1.7% higher for the month of February, compared with a 3.3% decline in the Nasdaq 100 and a 7.5% slump for the Magnificent Seven Index, which is headed for its worst monthly performance since March.
“It could have less room to rise in a tech rebound, but I don’t think it gets sold, because it sits at the front of the list of companies that look insulated from AI,” Hogan said.
Still, the stock has experienced its share of volatility — including last week’s 8% slump, its largest since April. Its 5% tumble on Thursday was its worst since April’s tariff-fueled selloff and came just a day after Bloomberg News reported that the company’s long-planned upgrade to the Siri virtual assistant could get delayed.
Skyrocketing prices for memory chips have also become a growing headwind, especially as Apple’s growth lags behind other names within tech. Analysts expect its revenue to rise 11% for its fiscal year ending in September, before decelerating to a 6.7% pace in the 2027 fiscal year. Earnings are also expected to slow next year, according to estimates data compiled by Bloomberg.
That relatively tepid profit growth outlook has the stock trading at roughly 30 times estimated earnings over the next year, higher than every Magnificent Seven peer outside of Tesla Inc. and well above the 24 level where the Nasdaq 100 trades.
“Apple is not a bargain and it hasn’t been in a while, and there’s no real growth there compared with the rest of tech,” said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at Phoenix Financial Services. “However, I think the market will continue to give it the benefit of the doubt.”
“There’s a lot less risk for hardware than software,” Kaufman added. “And regardless of anything else, it isn’t like people can use AI to code themselves a new iPhone.”
Tech Chart of the Day
Shares in British company Raspberry Pi Holdings Plc have continued to surge on investor optimism over how its simple personal computers could be used for artificial intelligence. A 23% rally Wednesday extended its five-day gain to more than 90%, driven by a viral social media post that suggested AI agents like OpenClaw could drive demand for Raspberry Pi’s single-board computers.
Top Tech Stories
Meta Platforms Inc. has agreed to deploy “millions” of Nvidia Corp. processors over the next few years, tightening an already close relationship between two of the biggest companies in the artificial intelligence industry.
Apple is accelerating development of three new wearable devices as part of a shift toward artificial intelligence-powered hardware, a category also being pursued by OpenAI and Meta.
Palantir Technologies Inc. said it’s moved its headquarters to Miami from Denver at a time when tech firms are headed to South Florida as local officials promote the region as an alternative to California’s Silicon Valley.
YouTube fixed a problem with its recommendations system that caused more than 350,000 users to experience problems with the streaming site, saying all of its platforms are back to normal.
An Indian startup called Sarvam AI is making a push to create a viable competitor for the domestic market, unveiling an artificial-intelligence model that it says is more tailored to the languages and cultures of the world’s biggest market than the likes of ChatGPT and Claude.
Mesh Optical Technologies, a startup working on hardware used to move data at high speeds within data centers, raised a $50 million funding round led by Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital to scale manufacturing of the technology in the US.
Earnings Due Wednesday
Earnings Premarket:
Earnings Postmarket:
–With assistance from Subrat Patnaik, David Watkins and Olivia Solon.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Callan, a leading institutional investment consulting firm, announced the results of its 2025 Nuclear Decommissioning Funding Study, outlining insights into the status of nuclear decommissioning funding in the U.S. Callan found that nuclear decommissioning trust (NDT) fund balances totaled $100 billion in 2024, up almost $20 billion (23.5%) from 2022.
For most of the time since the pandemic, large-cap stocks have outperformed their smaller counterparts in the US stock market. That is, the LargeCap S&P 500 index has outperformed the MidCap S&P 400 and SmallCap S&P 600, collectively the “SMidCaps.” That started to change late last year as investors increasingly concluded that the former’s earnings outlook had become riskier and its
Could the largest U.S. tax increase as a percentage of GDP in 33 years affect the stock market? Yes. Open your pocketbooks. You’re about to pay up for President Trump’s tariffs this year. That’s the overriding message from a recent report published by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan organization focused on tax policy. The impact
The rapid acceleration in this company’s revenue growth can make this AI stock a multibagger. Nebius Group (NBIS 0.55%) is an important player in the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem, supplying the much-needed computing capacity to companies looking to train and deploy AI models and applications in the cloud. Nebius operates dedicated AI data centers equipped
Will stock markets tip over amid fears of Fed dithering on rate cuts? FOMC meeting minutes are in focus. Wall Street looks soggy despite upbeat results for the Q4 earnings season Markets pressing for more rate cuts after mixed US jobs and inflation data January FOMC meeting minutes may send stocks lower as the Fed
Image source: Getty Images To earn a stable £1,667 monthly income from the stock market you would need roughly £500,000 invested. This is based on the recommended 4% withdrawal rule, eyeing a potential 30-year-long retirement. Half-a-million’s a big number. But with steady saving, ISA tax benefits, and the miracle of compounding returns, it’s not as
Each of these offers something different for your portfolio. New technology is the driving force behind most of the disruptive upstarts that go on to change the world. That makes tech stocks a surefire part of a growth portfolio, but it also makes them riskier than other stocks; while some of these exciting stocks have
The luxury EV maker still has a lot to prove. Lucid‘s (LCID 3.50%) stock has declined more than 70% over the past 12 months. The luxury EV maker, which went public through a 2021 merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), disappointed investors with sluggish deliveries and steep losses. Let’s see if it can
2026-02-17T18:14:17.392Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt. Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. AI disruption fears led
These high-yield stocks have been paying dividends for half a century or more. Many top consumer goods companies are paying above-average yields right now. These are rock-solid companies that have been paying dividends for decades, suggesting the market may be undervaluing their prospects. Here are two standout dividend stocks that offer high yields and can
More than half of Pershing Square Capital Management’s portfolio is now invested in high-profile artificial intelligence (AI) stocks. This is, arguably, the most important week of data releases for the entire quarter on Wall Street — and it has nothing to do with earnings reports. Today, Feb. 17, marks the deadline for institutional investors with
Gold prices fall and — surprise! — so does Coeur Mining stock. Up one day and down the next, Coeur Mining (CDE 4.08%) stock must be driving investors bonkers — but it’s pretty easy to explain. Coeur mines gold after all (Coeur also mines silver, zinc, and lead). When the price of gold rises, Coeur
The Morning Bull – US Market Morning Update Tuesday, Feb, 17 2026 US stock futures are slightly weaker this morning, with E-mini S&P 500 contracts down about 0.25% and Nasdaq futures off around 0.6%, as investors weigh softer inflation against a cooling growth pulse. The US 10 year Treasury yield is sitting near a 2
Sound Shore Management, an investment management firm, has released its investor letter for the fourth quarter of 2025. You can download a copy of the report here. In Q4 2025, The Sound Shore Fund Investor Class (SSHFX) and Institutional Class (SSHVX) advanced 7.83% and 7.87%, respectively, compared to the S&P 500’s 2.66% return and the Russell 1000
The energy company tumbled over the past month as regulators discussed emergency auctions and capacity-market price collars in one of its key markets. Constellation Energy (CEG +3.80%) is a utility with a massive nuclear fleet and has been one of the top companies hyperscalers turn to for their growing energy needs. The stock surged over
The market might be overreacting to AI-driven fears about software stocks. The slump in software stocks has become one of the biggest investment trends of 2026. The tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 index is down about 3% year to date, underperforming the S&P 500 index, which is little changed. But major software-as-a-service (SaaS) stocks are getting punished. So
Both of these fintech enterprises are finding monster success. Investing at the crossroads of financial services and technology can introduce some exciting opportunities. This is precisely the case with digital banks like SoFi Technologies (SOFI +1.55%) and Nu Holdings (NU 1.29%). The former’s shares have surged 261% in the past three years (as of Feb.
The Morning Bull – US Market Morning Update Monday, Feb, 16 2026 US stock futures are pointing higher this morning, with key contracts on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq up around 0.3% to 0.4%, as investors react to cooler inflation and falling bond yields. Headline US inflation is at 2.4% and core inflation, which strips
After three straight years of 15%+ gains for the S&P 500, seeking out ways to protect your portfolio from a correction is a prudent move. For perhaps the first time since 2022, investors seem genuinely fearful of a bear market in stocks. That hasn’t shown up in equity prices yet — the S&P 500 is
Key Points President Trump’s tariffs are having a big impact on consumer pricing and spending. 2026 could see the problem get worse with a full year of tariffs. Stocks are priced for strong earnings growth, but the economic forecast might not support it. 10 stocks we like better than S&P 500 Index › The immediate
