March 1st, 2000
AAPL's text book classic ascending triangle chart formation shattered into a thousand pieces as Apple busted out to the upside, drowning all resistance with a tsunami of demand. The immediate catalyst was a well-timed, upbeat meeting between Apple's top brass and Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette analyst, Kevin McCarthy. According to Reuters, McCarthy said, "checks with retailers indicate that the batch of new products introduced at Tokyo MACWORLD in mid February are selling 'briskly', which he said Apple confirmed. Sales of Apple's PowerBook professional notebook line are on track to exceed last quarter's sales, after a much-needed product refresh was introduced in Tokyo. The company's new high-end graphite-colored iBook is rejuvenating sales of the iBook family, which McCarthy said were soft in the month of January. He also said that the new PowerMac G4 professional desktop, with a new performance upgrade to a 500 megahertz G4 PowerPC processor, is 'flying off the shelves.'" Apple gained 15 11/16 or 13.69% to close at an all time new high of 130 5/16 on 9.6 million shares traded. Normally, Apple trades about 4 million shares and often much less. AAPL closed near the high of the day on huge volume, indicating that demand wasn't satiated for shares of AAPL by today's big price move. The Nasdaq gained 83 points (1.78%) to close at 4780, a new record high with record volume of 2.085 billion shares traded. Biotechs led today's tech rally, the sector is now up 88% this year. Internet stocks, much beaten down so far this year, were strong. The Nasdaq is now up 17.5% this year or 108% year to date. Many analysts had targeted 1500 as a reasonable goal for the Nasdaq by year's end, however that target now looks achievable much soon than expected. The Dow churned, gaining only 3 points to close at 10131, on volume of over 1.2 billion shares. That's close to the record volume of 1.35 billion shares traded set last December 12th. Crude oil prices rose above 31 dollars a barrel, holding back the old economy stocks. OPEC ministers meet on March 27 and the world hopes they will raise their oil production levels. The S&P 500 gained 12.26 (0.90%) to close at 1378.68. In Apple related businesses: Adobe lost 1 5/8 to close at 100 3/8. Akamai gained 17 3/8 to close at 278 5/8. ARM Holdings slipped 5 5/8 to close at 228 dollars. IBM lost 2 5/16 to close at 100 7/16. Shares of Earthlink lost 1/8 to close at 24 3/4. Macromedia lost 3/32 to 86 11/32. Motorola lost 2 dollars to close at 170. Apple's competitors: Intel climbed 2 7/8 to close at 115 7/8. Dell gained 2 3/16 to close at 43 dollars. Hewlett Packard gave back 7/8 to close at 133 5/8. Shares of Microsoft gained a buck to close at 90 1/2. Gateway gained 1 1/16 to end at 69 13/16. Compaq gained 7/8 to close at 26 dollars. 3-COM (COMS) surged another 7 1/8, to close at 105 1/8, on the day before the much anticipated initial public offering of its Palm Inc. (PALM) spin-off. Economic data news: Construction spending forged ahead at its fastest pace since 1998, up 2.7% in January. Meanwhile, the National Association of Purchasing Management Index, a measure of strength in the manufacturing sector of the US economy, rose to 56.9 in February from 56.3 in January. Economists had expected a decline in the NAPM Index to 56.0. The Wall Street Journal reported, "Among the purchasing managers surveyed, 47% reported higher prices for raw materials, an increase from 42% in January. Prices were driven by increased demand and higher energy costs, the purchasing managers said. The construction industry was also concerned about rising interest rates. Employment continued to grow in the manufacturing industry for the 10th consecutive month, at a rate slightly faster than in January." On Thursday the new jobless claims, new home sales and the leading indicators are released. Friday has the most important data release this week, with the employment data for February on the menu. The bellwether 30-year US Treasury bond traded down 7/32 to 101 9/32. The yield, which moves inversely to the price, rose to 6.15%. For full quotes on all the companies mentioned in this article, we have assembled this set of quotes at Yahoo! for your reference. We also have many of these same quotes reported live (20 minute delay) on our home page. For other stories regarding Apple's stock activity, visit our Apple Stock Watch Special Report.
[4:00 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Apple Shatters Old Record, Closes Over 130
by Wes George