I ended yesterday's session noting that I was watching some of the bellwether stocks as a gauge for overall buying demand. Earlier in the day I had chimed in on Apple Inc (AAPL) and Google Inc (GOOG). By the close we saw that APPL had rallied back to flat while GOOG finished with loss. I was just looking over the action and thought an update was in order. And since the discussion is about "bellwethers" I thought I should throw Microsoft Corp (MSFT) and General Electric Co (GE) into the mix. Below are daily charts that highlight the near-term action.

Charts Courtesy of Thomson Financial

Nothing here suggests buyers are jumping in. Apple is still holding above yesterday's low but is threatening to give back much of the late-day rebound. General Electric also staged a late-session rebound yesterday but it too is sliding back toward Monday's lows. Google is making another new low today and Microsoft has dropped back to within a few cents of its worst levels of year.

Again, the reason for looking here is that these represent some of the most well-known, and in some cases well-liked, stocks in the market. As the charts below show, analysts are firmly in the bullish camp for Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Optimism on General Electric may not appear overwhelming here but there is an important point to note. According to data from Zacks, we began the year with 9 of 12 analysts (75 percent) ranking GE with a "buy" rating. Since then we have seen a steady shift in the sentiment. These shifts can take time to play out and are dangerous because some of the still "trapped bulls" may look to sell/downgrade on any rallies.

Apple Inc	Google Inc
Microsoft Corp	General Electric Co

At this point I would say that GE, a.k.a. the "bluest of the blue chips", in the process of falling out of favor. The question is whether the Street comes in to defend AAPL, GOOG, and MSFT, or they look to run away.