Apple's Strong Black Friday Can't Boost Stock

iStock TickerSeveral analysts issued research notes that said Apple had a strong Black Friday performance, but it wasn't enough to push the stock into positive territory. AAPL ended the day at US$88.93 per share, a loss of $3.74 (-4.04%) on light volume of 32.9 million shares trading hands.

Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore told his clients, "Our checks show demand for Macs, iPhones and iPods remains resilient despite the weaker consumer spending environment."

Doug Reid of Thomas Weisel reported that his checks at some 47 different Apple Stores around the U.S. found Apple's sales to be "up slightly." According to Marketwatch, he added "Specifically, our checks suggest that Apple continues to gain market share in PCs, smartphones and MP3 players despite the challenge of higher price points in difficult economic times."

While the news for Apple was good, the broader economic outlook was not so hot. The National Bureau of Economic Research declared the U.S. economy to be in recession, and news of falling chip sales piled on the tech sector, pushing the NASDAQ down almost nine points to close at 1,398.07, down 137.50 (-8.95%).

Still, Apple did manage to outperform the broader market, falling less than half of the NASDAQ's 8.95%, and less than 2/3 of the DOW's loss, which closed at 8,149.09, a loss of 679.95 (-7.70%).

*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.