U.S. stock futures higher in pre-market trading for Friday, May 18. The Nasdaq Futures is trading at 6,927.75 up with +0.32% percent or +0.32% point.The Dow Futures is trading at 24,759.00 up with +0.22% percent or +55.00 point. The S&P 500 Futures is trading at 2,724.25 up with +0.20% percent or +5.50 point.
In overnight trading in the Eastern Hemisphere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 is trading at 22,930.36 up with +0.40% percent or +91.99 point. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is trading at 31,091.44 up with +0.48% percent or +149.29 point. China’s Shanghai Composite is trading at 3,187.91 up with +1.07% percent or +33.63 point. India’s BSE Sensex is trading at 34,979.46 with a loss of -0.48% percent or -169.66 point at 12:15 PM.The FTSE 100 is trading at 7,781.97 with a loss of -0.077% percent or -6.00 point. Germany’s DAX is trading at 13,093.50 with a loss of -0.16% percent or -21.11 point. France’s CAC 40 is trading at 5,612.08 with a loss of -0.17% percent or -9.83 point. The Stoxx Europe 600 is trading at 395.12 with a loss of -0.07% percent or -0.32 point.
Friday’s Factors and Events
Thursday’s Activity
U.S. market were lower on Thursday.For the day The Nasdaq Composite is trading at 7,382.47 with a loss of -0.21% percent or -15.82 point.The S&P 500 is trading at 2,720.13 with a loss of -0.086% percent or -2.33 point. the Dow is trading at 24,713.98 with a loss of -0.22% percent or -54.95 point.
Other leading market index closes included the small-cap Russell 2000 Index closed at 1,625.29 up with +0.55% percent or +8.92 point; the S&P 600 Small-Cap Index closed at 1,001.02 up with +0.70% percent or +6.93 point; the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index closed at 1,948.28 up with +0.23% percent or +4.47 point; the S&P 100 Index closed at 1,194.58 with a loss of -0.22% percent or -2.68 point; the Russell 3000 Index closed at 1,616.81 with a loss of -0.014% percent or -0.23 point; the Russell 1000 Index closed at 1,509.18 with a loss of -0.062% percent or -0.94 point
the stock market has been consistently underestimating Apple (AAPL). Around that time, I started to point that out to investors, and have done so on many occasions since. Now, with the stock outperforming the broader market and hitting new highs, I am sure many people are looking at the stock as expensive and are thinking of taking a profit.
I am usually all in favor of that, but to do so in this case would be a mistake. Apple, even at these levels, still represents one of the best values around.
That may be hard to believe when you look at the chart a few paragraphs below, but when it comes to stocks, value is not about how you feel about price, it is a measurable thing. The three main measures of value are trailing price to earnings ratio (P/E), forward P/E and the ratio of P/E to expected growth (PEG).
The forward-looking measures forward P/E and PEG inevitably involve predictions of future performance, so by nature contain some speculation and risk.