Apple Stock Watch - MACWORLD Vibes Can't Keep AAPL Up

by , 7:00 PM EST, January 10th, 2001

In that perverse way that Wall Street sometimes works, Apple's stock gave back everything gained in yesterday's trading session just as positive press was coming in from all angles. Microsoft officially announced Office for Mac OS X, which has been heralded as key to Apple's ongoing vitality and has received considerable attention. Despite this, and a generally upward market, Apple gave back 5/8. A representative quote from C-Net:

Analysts had warned that without a version of Office, or a similar productivity suite, running natively under Mac OS X, Apple would face problems getting businesses to switch to the new operating system.

"This is a very significant announcement for Apple," Gartner analyst Chris LeTocq said. "Frankly, this is the endorsement they needed."

Until Wednesday's announcement at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Microsoft refused to reveal a timetable for a Mac OS X version of Office, with some analysts speculating the company would not deliver the product until early 2002.

In the meanwhile, network juggernaut Cisco was downgraded by CIBC World Markets which caused morning trading to head lower. The afternoon saw this process reverse and the all three major indexes closed higher.

Apple backed off exactly as much as it gained in yesterday's trading to close at 16 9/16, a loss of 5/8 (-3.64%) on strong volume of 10,371,100 shares trading hands.

The Nasdaq fared the best of the major indexes, closing at 2524.18, a strong gain of 82.88 (+3.39%).

The Dow ended the day higher at 10604.27, up by 31.72 (+0.30%).

The S&P 500 closed at 1313.27, a gain of 12.47 (+0.96%).

Akamai received a downgrade from Wit Sound View and so rose in today's trading. The stock closed at 22 1/8, higher by 1 9/16 (+7.60%) on volume of 3,436,100 shares trading hands.

Adobe sank on what seems to be general principal to close at 45 3/4, down 4 1/16 (-8.16%) on volume of 7,070,900 shares trading hands.

IBM rose as the chip sector got a boost from investors who put back money taken out in recent weeks. The stock closed at 3 7/16, up 7/8 (+0.95%) on volume of 7,656,100 shares trading hands.

Motorola announced earnings that met recently lowered expectations. Sales for the company rose 11% from the year ago quarter. The stock closed at 21 3/16, up 1/2 (+2.42%) on strong volume of 19,393,200 shares trading hands.

Earthlink showed strength as an internet company, trading higher to close at 7 5/8, higher by 9/16 (+7.96%) on volume of 1,852,200 shares trading hands.

Gateway closed higher at 19.94, a gain of 1.07 (+5.67%) on volume of 1,884,400 shares trading hands.

Dell closed at 21 5/16, up 1 9/16 (+7.91%) on volume of 46,802,300 shares trading hands.

Hewlett Packard closed higher at 31 3/4, a gain of 3/16 (+0.59%) on volume of 10,812,000 shares trading hands.

Intel shared in today's chip gains to close at 33, a gain of 3/4 (+2.33%) on volume of 51,496,300 shares trading hands.

Microsoft officially announced Office for Mac OS X today in a keynote address at MACWORLD. The stock closed at 52 7/8, up 1 1/16 (+2.05%) on volume of 45,121,700 shares trading hands.

For full quotes on all the companies mentioned in this article, we have assembled this set of quotes at Yahoo! for your reference. For other stories regarding Apple's stock activity, visit our updated Apple Stock Watch Special Report.

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