Apple shares have been experiencing the biggest price swings in more than four months. This is contributing to one of the worst bouts of U.S. stock volatility this year. This is also catching the eye of bears in the options market.?
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Demand for contracts that appreciate as Apple drops are selling at the highest prices in 14 months relative to bullish ones, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The stock has moved an average of 1.2 percent a day since the start of September, up from 0.9 percent in the first eight months of 2014, as concern mounted that features of its new phone are flawed.
Small changes in Apple have big implications for investor sentiment because of the company?s market value, the largest in the world. A 1 percent decline in the stock erases almost $6 billion of equity capitalization and lops about 5 points off the Nasdaq 100 Index. Its fit in the last four weeks has coincided with a 14 percent increase in S&P 500 volatility.
?Apple is the largest publicly traded company in the U.S. and it has great influence on every index it?s in,? Chad Morganlander, a money manager at St. Louis-based Stifel Nicolaus & Co., which oversees about $160 billion, said in a telephone interview. ?There will always be a correlation when there?s volatility in the market.?
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