Apple is falling on the first day the iPhone 8 is being sold

Apple’s share price slide led it to its worst week in 17 months amid mixed reviews for new product offerings and muted demand for the iPhone 8.

Apple fell 5 per cent to $151.89 this week with a decline of 1 per cent on Friday.

While the stock managed to eke out a weekly gain following its big launch event last week, shares have been on the back foot this week after the company admitted to a glitch on its new iWatch and reviewers complained that the new iPhone 8 offered just a minor upgrade to the iPhone 7.

Sentiment for the stock has also been hit by reports of tepid turnouts for the release of the iPhone 8 on Friday.

The so-called FAANG stocks, a moniker for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google — seen as the marque technology companies for investors to own — have seen a mixed performance in September.

Netflix has moved 7.2 per cent higher to $187.35 this month but fell 0.8 per cent on Friday.

Tech stocks more broadly continued their underperformance as shares in energy companies have taken over as the driving force behind recent record highs for Wall Street’s major equity benchmarks.

The technology sector of the S&P 500 was flat on Friday, with the month to date losses at 0.4 per cent.

It marks a reversal of fortunes for the companies that drove the broader index to repeated new highs earlier in the year — though the sector is still notching up gains of 24.8 per cent so far in 2017.

Despite the underperformance, flows of investor cash into technology-focused funds remain robust, according to data from EPFR, with the week ending September 20 marking the second-largest inflows since the start of the year.

But some investors have started to pull cash from the sector.

“We have been moderately de-risking our portfolios,” said Sebastien Page, head of asset allocation at T Rowe Price. “It means we’re building dry powder. In the long term, we still like growth over value but, over the next six months, we’re moderating that.”

Energy stocks have taken over as the leader sector in the S&P 500, up 7.8 per cent in September and buoyed by a 0.5 per cent gain on Friday. Rising oil prices have aided the rally with Brent Crude up 8.4 per cent this month.

Michael Underhill, chief investment officer at Capital Innovations, forecast a rotation out of tech and into energy and materials through the end of 2017.

“I predict a 10 per cent pullback in tech and that money isn’t going into bonds but undervalued energy and materials sectors,” he added.

Oil and gas company Hess was among the leaders for the sector on Friday, rising 2 per cent to $44.50.

The market was flat on Friday, with the S&P 500 index edging up 0.1 per cent to 2,502, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slightly lower at 22,349 and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.1 per cent to 6,427.