March 22nd, 2000
The Federal Reserve's interest rate hike yesterday had a predictable effect on stocks. The rate sensitive stocks on the Dow took a beating, while the lighter than air tech stocks, immune from higher rates, soared ever higher. Apple bust through 140 dollars per share for the first time ever. Apple surged 9 1/4 dollars or 6.86% to close at 144 3/16 on above average volume of 5 million shares to a second day of record highs. Yesterday, AAPL was up over 11 dollars. Apple's recent surge comes on the heels on little or no news from Cupertino. Investors are merely configuring their portfolios ahead of the approaching earnings period to hold the winners and dump the dogs. Apple reports earnings on April 14th. See the Mac Observer story. The Nasdaq climbed 152 points (3.25%), after yesterday's 100 point gain, to close at 4864 on volume of 1.78 billion shares traded. The Nasdaq rose to within about 180 points from record territory and has momentum on its side. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) chugged ahead 8.9% while the Biotech Index (BKT) bounced up 10%. Internet and telecom stocks were also market leaders. The Dow lost 40 points (-0.37%) to close at 10866 on volume of more than a billion shares. Financial stocks climbed higher in spite of the interest rate increase, while the cyclicals and basic material stocks, yesterday's darlings, were tossed aside in the clamor towards techs. The S&P 500 gained 6.77 points (0.45%) to close at 1500.93 to set a new record high. In Apple related businesses: Akamai bounced back 11 dollars to close at 208 1/2. ARM Holding continued down a buck to close at 185 dollars. Adobe soared 9 1/4 to close at 102 dollars on speculation that the company might benefit from the coming e-book revolution. Earthlink gained 3/4 to close at 21 5/8. Macromedia gained 2 37/64 to 85 11/16. Motorola gained 5 dollars to close at 163 15/16. IBM climbed 3/4 to 114 1/4. Apple's competitors: Compaq gained 1 5/16 to close at 31 13/16. Hewlett Packard gained 4 5/16 to close at 146 3/16. Shares of Microsoft gained 1/2 to 103 1/4. Dell gained 1/16 to 58 1/16. Intel gained 5 5/8 to close at 144 1/16 for a new high. Gateway bucked the trend, down 3/4 to close at 62 11/16, probably on fears that Apple is eating their consumer market for lunch. He-he. The bellwether 30-year US Treasury bond trading flat at 103 27/32. The yield, which moves inversely to the price, hovered at 5.97%. 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 many of 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.
[6:00 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Second Record High For AAPL In As Many Days!
by Wes George