Thursday was -- yet again this week -- a tough day for the stock market. But while the session saw weakness in the mega-cap indices, there was nice strength in some of smaller caps. In addition, we finally had a decent day for market breadth, which has been weak of late. Talk about a confused market! The S&P 500 (SPX) fell 0.6%, while the Nasdaq and the Nasdaq 100 both gave back about 1.1%. The S&P MidCap 400 bounced 1% and the S&P SmallCap 600 rallied 1.2% after recent weakness.

Sustainable Impact Investing, or ESG investing, is gaining traction not only with Argus Research clients but also with the global investment community. BlackRock CEO Lawrence Fink, who oversees approximately $9 trillion in assets, announced in January 2020 that his firm would be investing in companies that are making progress on sustainability. He doubled down in his January 2021 letter, calling on company managements to disclose their plans for making their businesses "compatible with a net-zero economy" by 2050. As assets have flowed in over the past 40 years, Sustainable Impact Investing has evolved. The discipline, originally known as Socially Responsible Investing, focused at first on excluding companies that conducted business in South Africa, or participated in industries such as tobacco, alcohol, and firearms. Performance of these initial strategies lagged, and the approach has been modified. Now, instead of merely identifying industries to avoid, the discipline promotes "sustainable" business practices across all industries that can have an "impact" on global issues such as climate, hunger, poverty, disease, shelter, and workers' rights.

Apple is among the largest companies in the world, with a broad portfolio of hardware and software products targeted at consumers and businesses. Apple’s iPhone makes up a majority of the firm sales, and Apple’s other products like Mac, iPad, and Watch are designed around the iPhone as the focal point of an expansive software ecosystem. Apple has progressively worked to add new applications, like streaming video, subscription bundles, and augmented reality. The firm designs its own software and semiconductors while working with subcontractors like Foxconn and TSMC to build its products and chips. Slightly less than half of Apple’s sales come directly through its flagship stores, with a majority of sales coming indirectly through partnerships and distribution.

In the metals space, the iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV) looks interesting, at least from a short-term technical perspective. SLV hit an intraday high of $27.24 on April 12, the day that both SLV and the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) reversed sharply lower on huge volume. SLV fell to an intraday low of $23.87 on May 3, or just over 12% and right back to its 50-day exponential average as well as to a 50% retracement of the rally from late February until April 12.