Why Apple, Southwest Airlines & Three Other Stocks Are in Spotlight

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In contrast to its previous sessions, crude futures are abnormally calm this morning, up 0.2%, as traders look forward to today’s API inventory data release.

Among the stocks traders are talking about today are some oil sensitive names, as well as a major tech company. In this article, we analyze why Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE:LUV), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), and Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) are trending and we find out what investors tracked by our team think about them.

Through extensive research, we determined that imitating some of the picks of hedge funds and other institutional investors can help generate market-beating returns over the long run. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these investors, since they are usually less followed by the broader market and are less price-efficient. Our backtests that covered the period between 1999 and 2012, showed that following the 15 most popular small-caps among hedge funds can help a retail investor beat the market by an average of 95 basis points per month (see the details here).

Ellica / Shutterstock.com

Ellica / Shutterstock.com

Apple Set to Introduce Products

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is in the spotlight due to its coming product event presentation in San Francisco later today. At the event, many experts expect Apple to introduce the iPhone 7, which might have a better camera and lose the headphone jack. Additional upgrades to Apple’s iOS and the Apple Watch are also expected. Given that Apple depends on the iPhone for the majority of its profits, the company’s new product specifications will be very important in terms of its future growth rate in the near term. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management owned 11.3 million shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) at the end of June.

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Southwest Releases August Data

Traders are watching Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE:LUV) today after the airline released its operational statistics for August. During the last month, Southwest’s revenue passenger miles inched up by 4.1% year-over-year while its load factor declined by 80 basis points to 84.6%. Capacity for the month rose by 4.6% year-over-year. Overall, for the third quarter, Southwest expects RASM to retreat by 3.5% to 4%. At the end of June, 45 funds from our database had a bullish position in Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE:LUV), down by 13 funds from the previous quarter.

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On the next page, we analyze why Caterpillar, ConocoPhillips and Apache Corporation are making headlines.

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