[3:50 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Nasdaq Posts Biggest Point Loss Ever, Apple Hangs Tough But Closes Lower
by Wes George
Ouch! That's gotta hurt. The Nasdaq has its biggest one day point lost ever as money gushed out of tech stocks only to be quickly reinvested in the beaten down NYSE. Microsoft takes some of the heat for today's crash, but there's more than enough blame to go around. Apple held up better than most.
Many Wall Street observers are quite pleased with the rout going on in the high flying tech stocks. It's healthy for the overall market, it makes sense and it's long over due. The Nasdaq is still 30% above it 200 day moving average, and the secular bull trend is still intact down to about 3700 on the Nasdaq. Nevertheless, the pain is enormous, for instance, Microsoft lost 80 billion dollars of market capitalization today. Fortunately, the Dow's good performance balances the losses on the Nasdaq for the diversified investor. You are diversified, aren't you?
At 5:00 PM EST Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson will issue his ruling on the Microsoft antitrust case, since last ditch efforts to cut a deal failed over the weekend.
Apple lost 2 1/2 or 1.84%, to close at 133 5/16 on volume of 2.9 million shares.
The Nasdaq free fell 348 points or 7.62%, to close near the day's low at 4224 on a volume of 1.7 billion shares traded. Today was the fifth worse day ever for the Nasdaq, making today comparable to the great market crashes of the past. The Nasdaq is now 17% off its recent high of 5048 set March 10th and appears to have some further downside ahead, but could bottom and start back up before the week is over.
The Dow soared 300 points (2.75%) to close at 11221 on volume of 1.25 billion shares. Today represents the 6th biggest point gain for the Dow.
The S&P 500 gained 7.39 points (0.49%) to close at 1505.97.
In Apple related businesses: Akamai got skinned alive, down 41 1/2 to close at 119 dollars. ARM Holdings melted 38 2/4 to close at 139 dollars. Adobe lost 5 9/16 to close at 105 3/4. Earthlink lost a dollar to close at 18 1/2. Macromedia gave back 9 13/16 to 80 1/2. Motorola sunk 7 11/16 to close at 138 5/16. IBM gained 3 dollars to 121 3/8 dollars, probably because with a P/E ratio of 28 and strong earnings, IBM looks like a safe tech harbor in the storm.
Apple's competitors: Hewlett Packard gained 3/4 to close at 133 5/16. Dell lost 9/16 to close at 53 3/8. Intel lost 1 5/16 to close at 130 5/8. Gateway gained 3/8 to close at 55 3/8 dollars. Compaq climbed 11/16 to close at 27 7/16. Shares of Microsoft crashed 15 3/8 to 90 7/8 on fear of what Judge Jackson's ruling might include later on this afternoon.
In Economic News: Construction spending continued climb in spite of higher interest rates, while growth in the manufacturing economy slowed in March for the second month in a row.
The National Association of Purchasing Management's monthly index of manufacturing activity slowed to 55.8 from 56.9 in February. Any reading above 50 indicates economic expansion.
The bellwether 30-year US Treasury bond climbed 8/32 to 106 1/32. The yield, which moves inversely to the price, dropped to 5.82%.
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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