Sink Or Swim: Apple Earnings Could Move These ETFs

It's not hard to find an ETF that offers some exposure to Apple AAPL. That's just the lay of the land when discussing the second-largest U.S. company by market value. Apple's status as the second-largest U.S. company behind only Exxon Mobil XOM lands the tech titan in over 80 ETFs and gives the stock a commanding presence in many of the most heavily traded tech and growth funds on the market. Put another way, when Apple reports fiscal first-quarter results after the bell today, it had better beat Wall Street estimates by a wide margin or plenty of ETFs along with the stock itself could take a beating. That's a worst-case scenario. Assuming Apple does blow past estimates as it often does, investors who can't afford the $400-plus price tag of Apple shares may want to consider going beyond the usual suspects such as the PowerShares QQQ QQQ and the Technology Select Sector SPDR XLK by taking a look at the following ETFs. Rydex S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF RPG The Rydex S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF doesn't offer a huge allocation to Apple on a percentage basis, but the stock is the ETF's second-largest holding. Moreover, if Apple pleases the Street, that would validate a return to growth stocks (at least the tech names) and ETFs. The next two days are big for RPG's near-term fortunes. Netflix NFLX, the ETF's top holding, reports after the bell Wednesday. The ETF is up almost 6% year-to-date. Vanguard Growth ETF VUG The Vanguard Growth ETF is a fund we've been bullish on for some time and while Apple accounts for 6.1% of the ETF's weight, there are 401 other stocks under VUG's umbrella so even an Apple miss would probably only derail VUG for a short period of time. There's been very little derailing VUG recently. The ETF, which has an expense ratio of just 0.12%, up 5% in the past month. Not to mention it's holdings are pretty conservative for a growth fund. For example, Wal-Mart WMT is top-10 holding in this ETF. iShares S&P North American Technology ETF IGM The iShares S&P North American Technology ETF devotes almost 9% of its weight to Apple and the ETF was able to shake off Google's GOOG earnings disappointment because IBM IBM, Microsoft MSFT and Intel INTC combine for about 22% of the ETF's weight. IGM has a strong chart, but the ETF is also arguably a tad overbought meaning it could vulernable to a near-term pullback if Apple fails to bring smiles to investors this afternoon. iShares Morningstar Large Growth Index Fund JKE The iShares Morningstar Large Growth Index Fund isn't a pure tech play either and we're not sure when Coca-Cola KO, the ETF's third-largest holding, became a growth stock, but we're not going to argue with the fact that Apple is the ETF's top holding with a weight of almost 13%. Usually when one stock accounts for that much of an ETF's weight, it can move that ETF in either direction. Said differently, while JKE has lagged the performance of Apple over the past 30 and 90 days, the lag isn't that dramatic. That indicates Apple does have a deep impact on this ETF, for better or worse.