October 14th, 1999
Investors responded euphorically to Apple's earnings announcement (see The Mac Observer's full coverage). Volume was over 3 times normal as more than 16.8 million shares traded for a one day 14.3 % gain. Apple closed at 73 1/16, a gain of 8 1/4. In the broader markets the advance-decline line continued down despite the Dow and the Nasdaq scoring marginal gains after a volatile day. The NYSE recorded only 21 new highs versus 264 new 52-week lows. Earlier in the day the Dow was down 100 points. The volume was strong while the market internals remained poor. The Dow closed up 54.45 to 10286.6 The Nasdaq close up 5.57 point to 2806.84 Strong U.S. retail sales data helped fuel another day of worries that the Fed will increase interest rates in November. The 30-year bond ended with a 6.32% yield, the highest since October of 1997, not a happy sign for stocks. Tomorrow morning Wall Street's direction will come largely from the Producer Price Index to be announced at 8:30 am EDT. The PPI is a measure of wholesale price levels. Higher wholesale prices indicate inflation, and this is an indicator closely watched by the Federal Reserve. The Phildelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) rebound over 2% today lead by Intel and Altera. Boeing and General Motors both beat earnings estimates handily. Mac related companies Symantec, Adobe, IBM, Motorola and Macromedia all closed up in sympathy with Apple's big surge. Apple's competition Dell, Compaq and Hewlett Packard slipped down slightly while Gateway rose over 5% on news that it will offer and all-in-one PC designed to emulate the iMac's success.Intel also joined the winner's circle, while Microsoft found themselves solidly in the loser's circle. 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.
[3:30 PM] The Apple Stock Watch: Holy DogCow, AAPL closes up 14.3% to 73 1/16!
by Wes George