Shares in Apple Inc. traded higher Monday amidst a broader tech rally that helped propel the stock to close at US$205.88, a gain of 5.96 (+2.98%), on moderate volume of 16.9 million shares trading hands.
What had investors so stoked was rising expectations of corporate IT buying, a sector of the market that has experienced a major slowdown for the last several quarters as part of the recession. Marketwatch reported that semiconductor stocks kicked the rally off, with other tech companies following suit.
AAPL has been trading in the $200+ range for the last several weeks, setting a new closing high of $206.63 per share on November 16th. Today's closing price was just shy of that mark.
*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.