[4:00 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Markets Give Back Yesterday's Gains, Apple Closes Down 5%
by Wes George
The stock markets surrendered most of yesterday's gains on trepidation over tomorrow's economic data which could show inflation and growth unabated in spite of the Federal Reserve's recent interest hikes. At least, that's the story they're hawking on the street. Apple fell back unable to break through resistance at $130.
Today's market weakness was disturbing after yesterday's rally gave hope to investors that stocks might break out of the recent bear market trend of lower highs and lower lows. Sans a breakout above 3800 the Nasdaq is telling us the bears will continue to rule and the bottom of 3232 set on April 17th could need testing once again. In fact, tomorrow's employment cost numbers and gross domestic product could prove to be somewhat of a watershed for both the Dow and the Nasdaq by defining the overall trend for the month of May.
The Mac Observer Stock Watch Virtual Portfolio had a weak day along with the general softness on the Nasdaq.
Apple sagged 7 dollars or -5.46% to close at 121 5/16 on volume of 3.26 million shares.
The Nasdaq shed 81 points (-2.18%) to closed at 3630 on volume of 1.5 billion shares traded.
The Dow dropped 179 points (-1.61%) to close at 10945 on light volume of 985 million shares.
The S&P 500 lost 16.45 points (-1.11%) to close at 1460.99.
In Apple related businesses: Akamai gained 7/16 to close at 73 1/2. ARM Holdings lost 2 5/16 to close at 29 13/16 Adobe lost 5 1/4 to close at 114 5/8. Earthlink gained 7/8 to close at 17 3/4. Macromedia bounced 1 13/16 to 62 7/8. Motorola gained 5 1/16 to close at 117 9/16. IBM slid 1 9/16 to 110 15/16.
Apple's competitors: Hewlett Packard climbed 1 1/4 to close at 140 9/16. Intel lost 4 1/4 to close at 120 3/4. Gateway lost 1 13/16 to close at 55 1/8. Compaq lost 13/16 to close at 29 7/16. Shares of Microsoft lost a buck to 68 3/8.
Durable good orders rose 2.6% in March in part due to strong electronic equipment orders. Durable good orders fell in the last two month by almost 4.0%, so March's rise still leaves durable good orders negative for 2000, although year over year orders rose 7.6%.
According to the Wall Street Journal, "Orders for industrial machinery and equipment, which includes personal computers, fell 2.1%, the fourth decline in the past five months. While on the rebound, US manufacturers have been battered by a global financial crisis that has cut sharply into their overseas sales and also has opened them up to stiffer competition for cheap imports."
The Economic Calendar this week is packed with market moving data releases. Thursday is busy with jobless claims, gross domestic product, employment cost and the M2 money supply data. The GDP is expected to show that the economy is growing at 6.0%, still too fast for the Federal Reserve. And on Friday personal income and the Chicago PMI may move the market.
Wall Street will be watching all these data closer than usual for evidence that the Federal Reserve's program of interest rate hikes are beginning to take effect or for signs that inflation is accelerating.
The bellwether 30-year US Treasury bond fell 4/32 to 104 6/32. The yield, which moves inversely to the price, rose to 5.95%.
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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