Apple Stock Watch - AAPL Rises More Than 8%... At Last

by , 5:00 PM EST, January 11th, 2001

Apple finally benefitted from the dual forces of upward momentum in the tech sector and the positive press coverage surrounding this week's MACWORLD Expo in San Francisco. The stock rose more than 8% in heavy trading. The Nasdaq itself rose more than 4% despite continued warning coming from some of the largest tech companies on the planet. According to Yahoo!:

This action suggested that many investors believe that much of the bad news has been factored in and that investors are betting that a possible bottom has been reached in the beaten down tech sector... All tech areas participated in the rally with tremendous gains coming from the chip, software, networking, and hardware stocks... Even the Internet sector gained 4.8%, ignoring Yahoo's [sic] disappointment...

With the 4.6% gain today, the Nasdaq has now advanced for three consecutive sessions, a feat that it has not accomplished since before Labor Day...

Apple continues to enjoy the limelight in the mainstream press with mostly glowing coverage of the new PowerBook G4. The PowerMac G4 models announced this week have been met with a ho-hum attitude outside the Mac community. iTune and iDVD have also yet to be recognized for the truly empowering technologies that they are.

Apple closed sharply higher at 18, a strong gain of 1 7/16 (+8.68%) on heavy volume of 14,304,900 shares trading hands.

The Nasdaq rocked, closing at 2640.57, a gain of 116.39 (+4.61%).

The Dow also gained, but at a more anemic rate, to close at 10609.55, a gain of 5.28 (+0.05%).

The S&P 500 made it a triple crown day as the third major index joined its brethren in the plus side. The S&P closed at 1326.86, a gain of 13.59 (+1.03%).

Akamai shows no sign of paying attention to yesterday's downgrade from Wit Sound View. The stock continued its upward climb to close at 24 1/2, a strong gain of 2 3/8 (+10.73%) on volume of 4,015,200 shares trading hands.

Adobe closed at 48 1/16, up 2 5/16 (+5.05%) on heavy volume of 5,719,800 shares trading hands.

IBM landed new contracts and announced some new initiatives today, but the stock barely moved. IBM closed at 93 11/16, a gain of 1/4 (+0.27%) on volume of 9,491,400 shares trading hands.

Motorola continued to garner press after lowering expectations for the first half of 2001, but the stock closed higher at 22 1/8, higher by 15/16 (+4.42%) on volume of 26,592,300 shares trading hands.

Earthlink Announced they had purchased the ISP business of Pulitzer (14,000 subscribers), and the stock rose for the 4th straight day. Earthlink closed at 7 31/32, a gain of 11/32 (+4.51%) on volume of 1,984,000shares trading hands.

Gateway closed higher at 22.90, a strong gain of 2.96 (+14.84%) on volume of 7,211,000 shares trading hands.

Dell closed at 22 13/16, a gain of 1 1/2 (+7.04%) on strong volume of 60,426,100 shares trading hands.

Hewlett Packard closed higher at 32 3/8, up by 5/8 (+1.97%) on volume of 16,437,900 shares trading hands.

Intel closed higher at 33 3/8, a gain of 3/8 (+1.14%) on volume of 63,613,900 shares trading hands.

Microsoft made it a family affair with all of our tracked stocks trading higher. Microsoft closed at 55, a gain of 2 1/8 (+4.02%) on volume of 49,771,300 shares trading hands.

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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