Apple's Suppliers Had A Terrible February

Brian White of Topeka Capital says his "Apple Monitor" was terrible for February.

White, who is a mega-bull on Apple, maintains an "Apple Monitor," which tracks the results of key Apple suppliers. When their results are good, it usually means good things for Apple. When the results are bad, watch out.

White says the February results for his Apple Monitor were down 31 percent sequentially, which compares to the typical 8 percent decline. Even if you factor in the Chinese New Year, he still says it's bad.

"The Apple Monitor came up short this February and delivered the worst February we have on record," says White.

He tries to soothe concerned investors by saying, "That said, we are noticing that most of the preliminary Taiwan Monitors experienced weaker than average trends this February and certain Monitors are delivering one of the weaker performances on record."

In other words, it's not just Apple, it's the whole industry.

He also notes that Hon Hai, the parent of Foxconn, Apple's number one manufacturer, had a 25 percent drop on a month over month basis. Hon Hai isn't in the Apple Monitor, but its poor performance is also a bad sign for Apple.

There have been a multitude of reports about Apple cutting its orders for iPhone 5s on soft demand. This report would seem to fit with those reports, suggesting Apple's suppliers aren't making as many phones.