by , 7:50 PM EST, March 22nd, 2001
Mac OS X hype has finally taken over the mainstream and financial press, and that helped boost Apple's stock 7%. Apple held a press event for mainstream journalists such as Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, Ian Fried of C|Net, and many others (Reuters, more Reuters, SmartMoney, and more Wall Street Journal) . Most of those journalists then went back to their offices and wrote some very complimentary stories about the new OS. One exception to that would be Stephan Somogyi at AnochorDesk UK who says that this release is little more than Beta 2. Still, Apple rallied more than 7% on strong volume.
The Dow started off the day on a downhill ski slope to Redsville. The Dow dipped more than 300 points in intra-day trading, but rallied in the afternoon to close a mere 98 points lower. During the day, the Dow hit a 25 month low of 1907, which is when the rally kicked in. The Nasdaq, on the other hand dipped back and forth between positive and negative territory, and when the late afternoon rally took off, the Nasdaq managed to post a 67 point gain. Volume for both indexes was exceedingly strong. The Nasdaq topped 2.5 billion shares, while the Dow passed the 1.7 billion shares, both of which are more than 500 million shares more than are normally traded.
Technology stocks largely trended higher as the Dow dealt with its Blue Chip woes. All the stocks we track in the Stock Watch ended the day higher.
Apple started off in positive territory and traded in a narrow range for most of the trading session When the afternoon rally kicked off, Apple tacked on an additional half point. Volume was heavy, and the day's range was 20 3/16 - 21 3/4. As we said above, news about this weekend's release of Mac OS X dominated tech headlines and some financial headlines alike. The anticipation seems to be a turn on for many investors. AAPL ended the day above 21 for the first time in two weeks.
Apple closed at 21 5/8, a gain of 1 1/2 (+7.45%), on heavy volume of 12,919,200 shares trading hands.
The Nasdaq closed at 1897.70, up 67.47 (+3.69%), on volume of 2,508,554,000 shares trading hands.
The Dow closed at 9389.48, a loss of 97.52 (-1.03%), on volume of 1,738,627,000 shares trading hands.
The S&P 500 closed lower at 1117.58, down 4.56 (-0.41%).
Akamai got a break for the first time in a while, and traded higher by 4%. AKAM closed at 8 11/16, a gain of 11/32 (+4.12%), on strong volume of 3,890,800 shares trading hands. Apple is a large shareholder of Akamai.
Adobe took a loss to close at 36, up 3 1/2 (+10.77%), on strong volume of 6,092,900 shares trading hands.
IBM closed higher at 89.10, up two cents (+0.02%), on strong volume of 13,329,800 shares trading hands.
Motorola showed off some new gadgets at CeBIT, and the stock closed higher at 15.68, a gain of 1.52 (+10.73%), on moderately strong volume of 13,478,200 shares trading hands.
Earthlink climbed higher to close at 11 3/8, a gain of 3/8 (+3.41%), on volume of 2,699,700 shares trading hands.
Gateway closed at 16.86, a gain of 1.26 (+8.08%), on volume of 2,265,400 shares trading hands.
Dell closed at 26 1/4, a gain of 1 9/16 (+6.33%), on heavy volume of 60,145,200 shares trading hands.
Hewlett Packard closed at 30.89, a gain of 1.66 (+5.68%),on volume of 7,794,900 shares trading hands.
Intel closed at 28 5/8, a strong gain of 3 1/16 (+11.98%), on silly-heavy volume of 94,035,504 shares trading hands.
Microsoft closed at 54, a gain of 3 15/16 (+7.87%), on heavy volume of 63,186,100 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. You can also check out our Apple Financial Boards, a new moderated forum for Apple Investors and people who are interested in Apple's financial dealings.