Apple Just Posted Another Beat

April has been a good month so far, albeit rocky.  Today at the open it was very positive again, however, that wasn’t to last and a pullback ensued.

I was expecting an immediate pullback after Friday’s euphoria as the profit takers came in, so I was a little surprised at the gap up this morning starting in the futures around 3am.  But it wasn’t to last.

Thankfully the pullback so far is not much to speak of.  I now will be looking for further buying from here. Although, should there be some more selling, I cannot see it going down more than a further 10-15 points on the S&P before we will re-start the ascent to a new high.  I feel this quasi-trend has at least one more push before we can see a downtrend or further consolidation phase.

After hours as I write this Apple just posted earnings that smashed it AGAIN, therefore perhaps the selling is already over…

Market News:

U.S. stocks closed lower on Monday, failing to hold Friday’s records, as investors eyed earnings and looked ahead to the beginning of the two-day Federal Reserve meeting on Tuesday.

The Nasdaq reversed to trade mildly lower around noon as biotech stocks lagged. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) fell more than 4 percent to near its 50-day moving average. Health care was the greatest decliner in the S&P 500, with the S&P Biotech ETF falling more than 5.5 percent.

Also weighing on biotechs, Mylan plunged more than 5.5 percent after rejecting Teva’s unsolicited $40 billion bid on Monday but remained open to future talks.

The Dow Jones industrial average attempted to hold gains but traded mostly lower as Pfizer and UnitedHealth declined about 2 percent to be among the greatest laggards.

Earnings season continues this week, with Apple after the bell. The stock pared gains after earlier trading about 2 percent higher. Visa and health care names such as Gilead Sciences are among those reporting in the next few days.

Apple closed up 1.80 percent, recovering some early losses, ahead of its fiscal second-quarter report. TD Ameritrade’s chief strategist JJ Kinahan noted that options were pricing a 4.8 percent move in the stock on Monday.

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meets on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the conclusion and post-meeting statement due Wednesday.

The recent string of weak data and first-quarter growth expected at around 1 percent has convinced many in the markets that the Fed will not raise interest rates until September at the earliest.

In Europe, equities turned higher after Greece reshuffled the team negotiating with the euro zone.

Shares of Deutsche Bank slipped about 5 percent after the bank announced an overhaul of its banking operations on Monday.

Tuesday

Earnings: BP, Bristol-Myers, Merck, Pfizer, Ford, Honda Motor, Total, Aetna, Twitter, Kraft Foods, UPS, GoPro, Express Scripts, Western Digital, Panera, Yamana Gold, US Steel, Kaiser Aluminum, Corning, Cummins, Owens-Illinois, Supervalu, Penske Auto Group, JetBlue, Genworth Financial, Buffalo Wild Wings, Applied Micro, Samsung Electronics, Aflac, AK Steel, Parker Hannifin

9 a.m.: S&P/Case-Shiller

10 a.m.: Consumer confidence, housing vacancies