[4:00 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Apple Tries To Hold On To Gains, Closes Lower
by Wes George
Stocks slowly drifted lower today as investors waited for the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to decide the fate of interest rates till the next meeting in late August. Apple's stock close lower by 4.4%
Tomorrow afternoon the Fed will announce whether it will raise interest rates once again or stand pat. The pattern in the last six fed hikes has been for the markets to rally lightly into the announcement then sell off even if the Fed doesn't raise rates. However, most analyst expect our slow motion tech rally to continue beyond tomorrow whatever happens. Perhaps just as important as any action the FOMC takes tomorrow will be any statements coming out of their meeting.
The consumer confidence index fell 5.9 points to 138.8 in June while the May confidence level was revised to 144.7, matching the 30-year high of January 2000. According to the Wall Street Journal, "The data indicate that the US consumer won't be as strong a force in the months ahead, but at the same time still indicate relatively robust levels of confidence".
Apple jumped about 3 dollars first thing in the morning then dribbled lower all day to end down 2 3/8 to close near the day's low at 51 3/4 on volume of 3.5 million shares.
The Nasdaq fell 53 points (-1.36%) to closed at 3859 on volume of 1.4 billion shares. A good day for IPOs, Marvell tech (MRVL) Stratos Lightwave (STLW) had strong first days of trading, up 278% and 50% respectively.
The Dow fell 38 points (-0.37%) to close at 10504 on volume of 1 billion shares. Traders were buying beaten down stocks in retail and cyclical sectors, while selling utilities. Tech stocks tended to sell off in the last hour. The Russell 2000 is to be re-balanced this week and the quarter is ending, not to mention the Fed decision tomorrow. It all adds up to a market caught in a whirl of cross currents.
The S&P 500 dropped 4.75 points (-0.33%) to close at 1450.56.
The Mac Observer Stock Watch Virtual Portfolio Ouch, Merill Lynch cut top line growth estimates for IBM to 1% from 3% and the stock tanked, down 4 13/32 to 110 dollars.
In Apple related businesses: Adobe traded off 6 5/8 to close at 118 1/16. Earthlink fell 1/16 to 15 dollars. Motorola lost 1/8 to 30 1/8.
Apple's competitors: Hewlett Packard sagged 2 1/2 to close at 117 1/2. Gateway was up 1 3/16 to 58 9/16. Compaq gained 3/16 to close at 27 9/16. Shares of Microsoft were down 3/4 at 78 3/4. Intel shed 2 13/16 to 131 3/8.
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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