Apple saw strong sales over the Thanksgiving weekend, according to Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. The Associated Press reported that Mr. Wu based his analysis on in-the-field checks, where his team found strong foot traffic, even though Apple limited its discounts to a select few products and discounted a modest four to ten percent, modest in comparison to deeper discounts from other retailers.
Mr. Wu also told clients that Apple's Mac product line did well, despite higher price points for Macs and competition from Microsoft's newly minted Windows 7. To that end, he noted that iMacs and MacBooks were out of stock in some locations, which he characterized as a good sign. For the quarter, he told clients that his already aggressive estimates of 2.9 million Macs might prove "conservative."
Mr. Wu's research note didn't appear to have had much of an effect on Apple's stock, which traded lower through most of the morning and early afternoon trading session Monday as investors reacted negatively to a report on semiconductor sales.
As of this writing, AAPL was trading at US$199.90, down $0.69 (-0.34%), on moderate volume.
*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.