How Does Apple Stock Respond To WWDC?

Apple Inc AAPL enthusiasts are giddy this week as the company hosts its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. While techies await news of the latest developments in Apple’s cutting-edge product evolution, Apple shareholders are watching the ticker and hoping that this year proves an exception to the general rule that Apple’s stock tends to under-perform during WWDC.

The numbers
During the past 10 years, Apple’s stock has dramatically fallen during the week of WWDC. In fact, the stock is averaging a decline of 3.7 percent during the last 10 WWDC weeks. This underperformance is not simply a case of bad timing either: Apple’s stock has lagged the S&P 500 by an average of 4.0 percent during these periods, according to USA Today.