[5:00 PM] Apple Stock Watch: The Nasdaq And Apple Bounce Back
by Wes George
The Nasdaq bounced nicely off a low of 4381 Friday morning as money flowed back into the newly created bargains in the tech stocks--at least compared to their recent highs. Thus, a scary week of fear-driven profit taking ends happily, if not ever after. Apple ended higher by more than 10 dollars.
It's hard to know how much of today's rally was sincere and how much was end of the quarter "marking up" by big mutual and hedge funds seeking to raise the price-per-share of their positions off yesterday's lows.
Apple soared 10 1/16 or 8.00%, to close at 135 13/16 on volume of 3.5 million shares.
The Nasdaq gained 115 points (2.58%), to close at 4572 on a volume of 1.95 billion shares traded. The Nasdaq ended the week about 300 points or 7.5% lower, but is up 12.3% for the first the quarter of 2000. The week set the record for the biggest one week point drop in Nasdaq history.
The Dow fell 58 points (-0.53%) to close at 10921 on volume of 1.2 billion shares. The Dow sold off about 150 points in the last half hour as some so-called sell programs kicked in, placing the Dow in negative territory for the week, down about 110 points.
The S&P 500 gained 10.69 points (0.72%) to close at 1498.58. The S&P end up 2.5% for the quarter.
In Apple related businesses: Akamai gained 3/4 to close at 160 13/16. ARM Holding bounced 1 3/4 to close at 177 3/4. Adobe climbed 4 1/8 to close at 1111 5/16. Earthlink lost 5/16 to close at 19 7/16. Macromedia gained 11 3/8 to 90 5/16. Motorola lost 1 5/8 to close at 142 3/8. IBM gave back 4 3/4 to 118 dollars.
Apple's competitors: Hewlett Packard gained 1 13/16 to close at 132 9/16. Dell gained 1 3/4 to close at 53 15/16. Intel climbed 4 15/16 to close at 131 15/16. Gateway lost 5/16 to close at 53 dollars. Compaq slipped 1/8 to close at 26 5/8. Shares of Microsoft rose 2 7/8 to 106 1/4.
In Economic News: The saving rates of US citizens dropped to 0.8% in February, a record low, while their spending continued to trend higher.
US Factory orders fell 0.8% in February after falling 1.2% in January and factory inventories rose 0.7%, on top of the 0.5% increase in January.
According to the Wall Street Journal, "Despite the second straight monthly decline (of factory orders), few see substantial problems for manufacturers. Other readings, notably monthly reports from the National Association of Purchasing Management and the monthly Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, have shown manufacturers attempting to draw down inventory but not shuttering plants or equipment."
The bellwether 30-year US Treasury bond climbed 17/32 to 105 25/32. The yield, which moves inversely to the price, dropped to 5.84%.
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.
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