Apple Stock Watch - The New Economy's Promise Fades in 2000

by , 4:55 PM EST, December 29th, 2000

Things can only get better for tech stocks in 2001. As the last day of trading in 2000 comes to an end, the Nasdaq posted its worst single year in its 29 year history, but if you look at a 3-year chart the tech heavy index still outperformed the Dow with a respectable 60% gain. Apple's stock, although down about 80% from the year's high, is up by over 100% since January 1998.

The Nasdaq owes today's continued downtrend to investors dumping beaten down stocks in order to shave some taxes off their big capital gains made last spring.

By the end of 2001 tech stocks should be partly recovered from the current bear market. However, there is at least another quarter of pain left for technology businesses and, for PC stocks, slowing sales could drag on into the autumn of 2001. The residual damage from this year's burst tech stock bubble will prevent most tech stocks from setting new highs for years to come.

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On a more personal note — this is my last day as the Mac Observer's official Apple stock watcher. I would like to thank the Stock Watch's faithful core of readers for their feedback, insight and support over the last 14 months. It has been a privilege to report on Apple's market activity for you. Starting January 2nd, Bryan Chaffin, the Mac Observer's editor-in-chief, will continue the daily task of following Apple's stock into the third millennium.

Apple's stock traded flat for a second day at 14 13/16 on high volume of 10 million shares. AAPL is down 70% for the year and even further from its year high of $75 3/16.

The Nasdaq melted another 86 points (-3.38%) to close at 2471 on volume of 2.4 billion shares leaving the index down 39% in 2000 and off 50% from its all time high of 5012 set on March 10th. In fact, the Nasdaq's year 2000 was the worst performance any U.S. stock exchange has posted since 1937! Ouch.

The Dow gave back early day gains to settle lower by 80 points (-0.74%) at 10787 on volume of 1.03 billion shares. The Dow lost 6% for the year.

The S&P 500 lost 13.79 points (-1.03%) to close at 1320.43. The S&P is down 10%, its worst year since 1981.

Akamai shed 2 13/16 to 21 1/16, that's down 90% for the year and even further from Akamai's all time high of $345 1/2 in December of 1999.

Adobe sagged 3 7/16 to 58 3/16, nevertheless the software maker is the only stock we regularly follow which has had a great year 2000, posting gains of 90% for the year.

IBM is lower by a mere 20% for the year as Big Blue closed off by 1/4 to 85 dollars on this last trading day of 2000.

Motorola shed 9/16 to 20 1/4. For the year, the manufacturer of Apple's G4 chips lost 55%.

Earthlink lost 11/32 to 5 1/32. The Internet service provider with a business relationship with Apple lost 80% of its stock's value in 2000.

Gateway declined 0.90 to 17.99. The cow-spot PC company saw its value erode over 70% for the year.

Dell's stock got shaved for a 65% loss in 2000 and today the Austin, Texas based PC vendor lost another 1/2 to 17 7/16. January call options on Dell were active indicating traders expect the stock to bounce into the low 20-dollar range by mid-month.

Hewlett Packard fell 7/8 to 31 9/16 and is down 40% for the year

Intel lost 11/16 to 30 1/4. For the year, the chip-maker lost nearly 30% after being up 85% for 2000 as recently as Labor Day.

Microsoft lost 1 3/16 to 43 3/8. Our favorite monopoly to dis drifted lower all year long to end the year 2000 more than 60% off where it started.

For full quotes on all the companies mentioned in this article, we have assembled this set of quotes at Yahoo! for your reference. For other stories regarding Apple's stock activity, visit our updated Apple Stock Watch Special Report.

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