What’s Up With Apple?

Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL) has long been a darling on Wall Street, with shares growing thousands-fold over the last decade. But as the stock market has struggled over the last couple weeks with troubles brewing in China, the mass sell-off in the U.S. equity markets has hit Apple especially hard. On Friday alone, the stock sank over 6% with Monday’s pre-market trading shares down another 4.39%.

So what’s happening to the U.S.’s most valuable company? The stock has become the poster child of the burgeoning bull market in previous years. With many investors owning Apple as one of their top holdings, especially new investors without experience, Apple has enjoyed both customers and shareholders willing to pay a premium to own Apple.

But while the company is important to the bull market, it’s also important to the bear market. With an 8.5% slide last week to top off a 20.5% decline over the last six months, shareholders have lost hundreds of billions of dollars in market capitalization. Seeing that type of performance by one of the top stocks for individual investors can be seen as an unofficial sign of a bear market. Add the fact that the S&P 500 is down only 6.58% over the last six months and you’ll see why this is such bad news for investors.

Can Apple turn the tide?

Apple’s recent troubles are more a commentary on the irrationality of Wall Street investors than its own performance. After posting the largest quarterly profit of any publicly-traded company ever in FQ1 2015, the company’s FQ2 2015 numbers didn’t disappoint either. While the FQ3 2015 report didn’t meet expectations in terms of guidance and speculation ensued about the viability of the Apple Watch, the numbers certainly didn’t warrant this.

Here’s what Apple has going for it that should make investors see the recent sell-off as an opportunity rather than cause for fear:

iPhone 6s

Rumors have flown for months about Apple’s next iPhone installment, and according to Mac Rumors, it’s scheduled to be announced on September 9. Features have been rumored to include stronger, less bendable aluminum alloy, force touch (which can tell the difference between a tap and pressing firmly and activates different features accordingly), memory and camera upgrades, improved fingerprint touch ID to unlock and case colors. Considering how expensive the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were when they launched, it may seem too soon for yet another upgrade. But diehards will certainly be looking to take advantage of the new features and the improvements are just enough to convince even the average Apple consumer.

Apple Car?

There has been speculation for a long time that Apple is planning on entering the automotive industry with an Apple-powered car. While the company has been very good at keeping any rumored plans under wraps, it recently beganpoaching engineers from Tesla, causing analysts to believe that the rumors are real and a self-driving Apple car is on the way.

Apple bands

In an attempt to revive the Apple Watch from becoming a complete failure, Apple is working feverishly to upgrade the product before consumers lose interest. That includes (yet another rumor) a new “smart band” for the smartwatch, that can add new health tracking functions to the watch, including reading body temperature, blood oxygen, respiratory rate and blood pressure. If Apple is truly ready to launch the smart band in early 2016, as Apple Insider suggests, this could be what the Apple Watch needs to appeal to more end consumers.

Conclusion

Apple has a lot going for it. There’s no need for investors to worry about how the company is going to continue its insane profitability over the years to come. But they should remain wary of the current market conditions. As China continues to struggle in its markets, the ripple effect will continue to affect the rest of the world, including the U.S. equity market. This will likely continue to be a huge risk moving forward, one that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

That being said, the recent Apple sell-off could be seen as an opportunity to add more to your portfolio rather than a reason to fear.