The Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price has been sluggish in January, but is making a comeback today.
Shares in the technology company are currently swapping hands at $10.28, an 7.89% fall since market close on 31 December. However, the Appen share price is currently up 5% on yesterday's close.
Let's take a look at what might be impacting the Appen share price so far this month.
Image source: Getty Images
What's happening at Appen?
Appen shares are crashing in January, losing most of the gains made in December. In the first six days of the month, the Appen share price fell nearly 10%. Shares then fell a further 2.88% between market close on 6 January and market close on 11 January.
Appen is a technology company specialising in data services used to build artificial intelligence (AI) systems around the world.
The company has not provided any news to the market this year. However, the broader technology market may provide some clues to investor sentiment.
The S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) fell 6.39% between market close on 31 December and market close on 11 January. Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 Info Tech Index (ASX: XIJ) fell 7.67% in the same timeframe.
Both of these indexes, however, are recovering today. The ASX All Technology Index is up 1.73% at the time of writing, while the Info Tech Index is gaining 2.33%.
United States markets may provide a clue to this trend. The NASDAQ-100 Technology Sector Index (NASDAQ: NDXT) gained 1.73% today, but is down 4.48% since market close on 31 December.
Appen's share price fall in January comes on the back of a positive December. Between market close on 31 November and market close on 31 December, the Appen share price soared 16.37%.
A recent broker note out of Macquarie raised concerns big technology companies may be bringing AI data services in-house, potentially cutting out service providers like Appen.
As my Foolish colleague James noted, there are also concerns Amazon could enter the data annotation market.
Appen share price snapshot
The Appen share price has shed nearly 55% in the past year, performing roughly 65% worse than the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).
In the past month, Appen shares are up 5.11%, while they are down 7.72% in the past week.
The company commands a market capitalisation of more than $1.26 billion based on the current share price.
