October 13th, 1999
| [3:30 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Profit taking clobbers Wall Street again.
Mid-October has historically been a tough time for the stock market. This October is proving to be no exception as spooked investors are nervously taking profits off the table based on a combination of worries that range from higher bond yields and an ugly advance-decline line to Y2K volatility fears. The Dow closed down 184.9 points to 10232, with 307 stocks setting new 52-week lows, an unusually large number. Apple gave the last three days of gains back just hours before Fred Anderson announces Apple's 4th quarter earnings at 2 pm PDT today. Apple closed down $3.65 to $64.03. Analysts' consensus estimate is for Apple to report 45 cents per share for the quarter. Stay online for The Mac Observer's live coverage of Apple's conference call with the press and analysts. The Nasdaq closed down 70.97 points to 2801.46, lead downward by the computer, telecom and Internet sectors. 30-year bond yield rose to a new two year high at 6.28%, Wall Street worries that it may be setting a new higher trading range. The CRB Bridge Index rose to close at a new 52 week high due to higher oil, coffee, soy bean, gold and silver prices. Although this has little to do with the tech sector directly, its a further sign the Fed may raise interest rates. Mac related companies Symantec, Adobe and Macromedia all closed sharply down. Apple's PowerPC partners also both closed lower. IBM broke through it's 200-day moving average to the down side to it's lowest point in 19 weeks. Motorola, (MOT) which reported operating earnings of 53 cents per share meeting consensus estimates and easily beat last year's results traded down over $4 to $90.75. Intel Corp. (INTC), reported third-quarter earnings that missed estimates by a few pennies yesterday helped drag the tech sector down today. Volume was huge as Intel sold off $3.25 points to $91.12. Joining Intel on the down side in the PC market were Microsoft, Dell, Gateway 2000, Compaq, and Hewlett-Packard. 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 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. Our live coverage of Apple's 4th Quarter results starts at 2:00 PM PDT (4:00 PM CDT) with live updates directly to the home page. |