Growth stocks continued to show healthy demand following the Labor Day extended weekend, and Wall Street demonstrated renewed demand for stocks today, particularly in the retail, consumer and tech sectors. Apple nicked a new all-time high while Amazon.com joined the iPhone and digital services giant in the $1 trillion club in terms of market value.
XU.S. Treasury bonds on the long end fell, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year note up 4 basis points to 2.9%. Gold sank 0.7%, while WTI crude oil futures squandered a 2% early gain to fall more than 0.8% to $69.22 a barrel.
The volatile session in oil came amid concern over the path of a new hurricane that has run up the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to hit oil-related facilities in Mississippi and possibly Louisiana. Crude, however, remains up 14.5% for the year.
The Nasdaq composite, which barreled 5.7% higher in August, surrendered less than 0.3%. The S&P 500 fell just 0.2%, while the Dow Jones industrial average edged less than 0.1% lower. Small caps got hurt a bit more; the Russell 2000, a 4.2% winner last month, lost 0.4%.
Volume rose on both main exchanges, according to early readings.
Dunkin' Brands (DNKN) roared out of a new five-week flat base with a 73.59 proper buy point. Shares jammed more than 4% ahead to 76.06, ending near the intraday high. Volume expanded triple its average level over the past 50 trading sessions. The stock is still in the 5% buy zone.
The coffee and fast food chain is seeing an acceleration in profit growth with earnings up 22% and 31% vs. year-ago levels in the past two quarters. The Street expects Q3 earnings to lift 20% to 73 cents a share.
In the year-ago period in 2017, earnings inched up only 2%. Partly for that reason, the Canton, Mass.-based firm gets a mediocre Composite Rating of 81 on a scale of 1 to 99 in IBD Stock Checkup. Another reason: Dunkin' does not have an SMR Rating because there was no calculable return on equity in 2017.
Read this new IBD Stock Of The Day piece on heightened expectations of Dunkin' as an acquisition target.
Wall Street Leader Apple Extends Big Breakout Gains
Apple (AAPL), meanwhile, stretched its gain from an early-May breakout to more than 27% as shares advanced for a ninth straight session.
Apple cleared a 179.04 buy point in a well-crafted double-bottom base on May 4 in superb turnover, 61% above normal levels. It took a while for the breakout to gain steam. Yet over the past three months, Apple went on to form a bullish base on base. This chart pattern produced another proper entry point at 194.30, 10 cents above the flat-base section of the base on base.
The largest company on the Nasdaq by market value, Apple had joined IBD Leaderboard as far back as late March in 2017.
Analysts continue to show a net bullish view on the Cupertino, Calif., company's iPhone franchise. In a July 13 IBD technology section post, analysts at Nomura Instinet forecast a 2.5% increase in unit volume to 225 million for fiscal 2019, ending in September that year.
Apple is slated to report a product update on the iPhone at an event in San Francisco on Sept. 12.
The iPhone continues to be the Nasdaq-listed giant's largest source of revenue, but growth in digital services and newer product lines such as the Apple Watch and the HomePod have helped boost the overall fundamental picture.
The Thomson Reuters consensus view currently predicts Apple growing profit by 33% to $2.76 a share in the September-ending fiscal fourth quarter on a 16% jump in revenue to $61.14 billion.
Roku Rises Again
Roku (ROKU) vaulted more than 6% and hit a session high of 63.49 after an upgrade from Guggenheim Partners and a 74 price target. Volume came in 4% lighter than average, yet rose vs. the prior two trading sessions.
Roku joined Leaderboard as a half-size position on Aug. 23, finishing that session at 80.09. On that day, the smart TV technology firm briefly surpassed a 60.75 alternative buy point after an Aug. 9 breakout from a large, deep cup with handle. That base presented a 51.92 proper entry.
According to IBD Stock Checkup, Roku shows a middling 60 Composite Rating, due in part to the fact that the company has yet to post an annual profit. But sales are growing rapidly, and Roku gets a top-notch 97 Relative Price Strength Rating on a scale of 1 (poor) to 99 (excellent).
On the downside, data storage firms Western Digital (WDC) and Seagate Technology (STX) dropped 4.7% and 7.7%, respectively. Wall Street firm Evercore ISI reportedly warned that the hard drive and flash storage makers will see profit margins shrink.
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