November 8th 1999
Microsoft and Intel hold back the Dow, but not by much, as Judge Jackson's Findings of Fact becomes popular reading among high tech investors. Meanwhile, the technology heavy Nasdaq continues to storm ahead, in part, encouraged by the Finding's implication for increased productivity and innovation in the US economy. The Dow advanced 14.37 (0.13%) to 10718.85 on good volume. The weather across the nation continued sunny, warm and too beautiful for many investors to stay indoors. World markets closed mostly lower today. The Nasdaq reaches an unusual seventh consecutive high, up 41.7 points (1.34%) to close at 3143.97 on roaring volume of 1.27 billion shares traded. The S&P 500 moved up 6.78 (0.49%) to close at 1377.01 Apple was a big winner up 8 1/16 (9.13%) to close at a fifth consecutive all time high of 96 3/8 on very strong volume of 8.5 million shares. Investors seem to realize that Apple's Mac OS X stands gain more than any other operating system if Microsoft influence declines. In other Apple news today, the San Jose Mercury News reported that a Federal Judge said he will "issue a preliminary injunction preventing Future Power Inc. and the Daewoo Group from distributing their iMac look-alikes." US District Judge Jeremy Fogel said, "There are many ways in which modern lines, bright colors and translucent plastics might be combined in the design of a personal computer. Any of these combinations is available to Apple's competitors, so long as the combination selected is not so similar in appearance to the iMac as to infringe on Apple's trade dress rights.'' Other Microsoft competitors did well as investor's absorbed Judge Jackson's Findings of fact. Sun Microsystems ended at an all time high, up 2 5/16 to 112. IBM ended a several day downtrend bouncing up 3 5/8 to 93 3/4 on the Microsoft news. Two alternative OS ventures really soared. Be Incorporated (BEOS) jumped 2 11/16 or (70%) to close at 6 1/2. While Red Hat Inc. ran up 18 1/16 ( 21%) to close at 104. Akamai (AKAM) gained 13 5/16 points to 187 9/16 and Arm Holdings (ARMHY) also moved ahead 13/16 to 96 1/16. Some investors sold stock on the negative aspects of the Findings of Fact. Microsoft dipped 10 points in pre-session trading, but bounced back quickly to 89 15/16 at session's end, down only 1 5/8 points. Better than 10% of the Dow's volume today was the churn in Microsoft and MSFT's capitalization amazingly fluctuated over 50 billion today. Dell and Compaq also shed some weight. Gateway maintained a 1/2 point gain to 73. Macromedia rose 13/16 to 61 11/16 as they announced Dreamweaver 3 Fireworks 3 Studio will ship in December. Motorola saw a bit of profit taking after their stellar run up last week, down 2 7/8 to 111 7/16. The 30-year Treasury bond yield rose to 6.058%. 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.
[4:10 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Technology Rallies higher Without Microsoft, Apple Soars to 96 3/8
by Wes George