Shares in Apple Inc. crossed the US$700 mark for the first time in after hours trading on Monday. The stock ended the regular session up just shy of the $700 mark, but crossed that line after the markets closed.
AAPL's official closing price for Monday was $699.781, a gain of $8.501 (+1.23 percent), on moderate volume of 13.8 million shares trading hands. Investors were reacting positively to news that Apple had 2 million iPhone 5 pre-orders in just the first 24 hours. That was twice the record-setting iPhone 4S, and more than three times the iPhone 4 for the same period of time.
In the chart below, you can see that there was a sharp spike in volume in the closing minutes of the session, and that demand most likely contributed to the after hours increase. The stock dipped back and forth across the $700 line throughout the initial after hours session. As of this writing, the stock was trading at $700.10, an after-hours gain of $0.319 (+0.05 percent).
AAPL Chart for September 17th, 2012
Source: E*Trade
The iPhone 5 will ship on Friday, September 21st, and Wall Street will most likely be watching demand for the device in the company's Apple Stores, where the company will have additional stock. Shipping times online currently show 2-3 weeks.
*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a tiny, almost insignificant share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.