AAPL Up 3.8% on Broad Market Rally

May 4th, 2009 at 4:52 PM - Apple Stock Watch by Bryan Chaffin

Apple Inc.'s stock traded higher Monday in the midst of a broad market rally. Shares of AAPL closed the day at US$132.07 per share, a gain of $4.83 (+3.80%) on moderate volume of 21.7 million shares trading hands.

The gains came as all three major indexes also moved higher -- the Dow closed at 8,426.74, a gain of 214.33 (+2.61%), the NASDAQ ended the day at 1,763.56, up 44.36 (+2.58%), and the S&P finished at 907.24, up 29.72 (+3.39%).

The broad market rally was prompted by wide ranging news, from an upgrade to Intel from Morgan Stanley that helped push the tech sector higher, to improved housing and construction data for March, to news that Citigroup would include Nikko Citigroup Ltd. in plans to sell off some other Japan-based assets that helped the finance sector.

There was little in the way of Apple-specific news to push the stock, but the company was carried along by the good news guiding the rest of the markets.

*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a small share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.