Stocks Down 8th Straight; Which Ex-Leaders Joined Apple In Round-Trips?

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Stocks bled again on Thursday, and losses were weighted more heavily in technology and certain medical sectors.

Meanwhile, long-term government bond prices rose on both sides of the pond, sending the yield on the U.S. 10-year bond to around 1.8%. The 10-year U.K. bond yield edged back below 1.20% to around 1.18%, according to Tradeweb, after British judges ruled that only the U.K. Parliament can formally begin the process of the country's exit from the EU.

Commodities fell, led by a 1.2% slide in West Texas intermediate crude oil futures to $44.78 a barrel. Gold edged 0.4% lower on the Comex, while silver slid 1.9%.

The Nasdaq 100 fell 1%, a touch worse than the 0.9% drop by the Nasdaq composite.

Apple (AAPL) fell slightly more than 1% to 109.83, dipping back below its 110.33 cup-with-handle breakout point for the first time since its Sept. 14 breakout in towering volume. That's a sell signal. Watch to see if the stock can hold close to that proper entry and begin a fresh rebound.

With the market still in a pressured uptrend and distribution still heavy recently on both key indexes, it's not a surprise that other growth stocks have joined Apple in stumbling back near or below their prime entry points, especially in the field of medical devices.

Abiomed (ABMD), down 1.6% to 102.51, has fallen nearly 30% in just four weeks. The heart pump innovator is back below a 105.05 cup-with-handle entry.

Also in the medical sector, artificial joint replacement maker Zimmer Biomet (ZBH) edged 0.5% higher to 102.54, but only after having fallen more than 20% below its 52-week high; it's now hovering near 102, roughly 3% below a 105.58 entry in a long bottoming base. Zimmer earlier this week plummeted 14% after reporting a 9% rise in Q3 earnings to $1.79 a share. That marked the second quarter in a row of decelerating profit growth.

Sales rose just 4% after the Warsaw, Ind., firm notched gains of 59%, 58%, 68% and 66% in the prior four quarters, thanks to a merger with Biomet that completed in June 2015.

The S&P 500 dropped 0.4% as generic drug, medical services, drug wholesale, biotech and gaming stocks paced the decline. The Dow Jones industrials lost 0.2%.

Activision Blizzard (ATVI) is another market leader that has recently drifted back to prior buy point. In the regular session, the stock gained 1.8% to 43.37, returning back above a recent flat-base buy point at 43.25. The stock is also trying to reclaim its 50-day moving average.

Wall Street saw the video game creator's quarterly profit doubling to 42 cents a share on a 51% pickup in revenue to $1.57 billion. After the close, Activision met that consensus estimate and exceeded its prior outlook of $1.49 billion, while non-GAAP earnings vaulted to 49 cents, crushing Wall Street's view by nearly 17%.

The company reported 482 million monthly active users who logged more than 10 billion hours of play during the three-month period. CEO Bobby Kotick noted in a news release that its newest futuristic battle game franchise, "Overwatch," has "incredible player engagement" and has topped 20 million players in four months.

Activision also forecast Q4 net revenue at $1.86 billion, up 38% vs. year ago. The stock initially fell nearly 3% in extended-hours trading but later rebounded to nearly break-even.

Elsewhere in the stock market today, solar firms got trampled after former huge market winner First Solar (FSLR) reported a 46% plunge in third-quarter sales to $688 million, its worst year-over-year decline in more than three years.

Earnings beat Wall Street views, yet still dropped 64% to $1.22 a share. The stock tanked 15% to 34.51, notching the lowest level since April 2013.

Starbucks (SBUX), down 2% to 51.77, gained more than 1% after hours following news that the coffeehouse chain posted a 16% rise in non-GAAP earnings to 56 cents a share, including 6 cents stemming from an extra week of operation in the September-ended fourth quarter. Revenue grew 16% to $5.7 billion, and the company opened 690 net new stores, raising the total to 25,085 in 75 countries.

The stock has been struggling since gapping lower on April 22 and losing support at both its 50- and 200-day moving averages. Starbucks holds a barely lukewarm Composite Rating of 66 on a scale of 1 to 99 in IBD Stock Checkup.

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