October 28th, 1999
Wall Street responded euphorically to the strong gross domestic product in the 3rd quarter, which grew at a 4.8% annual rate with low inflation. Real GDP was also revised upward for the 2nd quarter from 1.6% to 1.9%. The Employment Cost Index rose 0.8% in the 3rd quarter, less than the expected 0.9%, indicating that wage pressures are mild. The question confronting the street tomorrow is: can we build on today's gains? The Dow advanced 227.64 or 2.19% to close at 10622.53 lead by the financial stocks on heavy volume. The Nasdaq gained 72.63 or 2.59% to close at 2875.15 with 1.2 billion shares traded, almost a record. The Nasdaq is up nearly 30% for the year. The S&P 500 rose 45.72 or 3.53% to close at 1342.43. The 30-year US Treasury bond yield dropped to 6.24% from 6.33% Wednesday. Apple saw an intraday high of 79, but couldn't hold it settling up 1 1/2 or 1.96% to close at 77 7/8. Apple's current all-time high is 79 1/16 set on September 20th of this year. Macromedia reported strong earnings today, advancing 5 5/16 to close at 62 1/16. Bears & Stearns Analyst Robert Fagin said about Macromedia: "Revenues from the company's core Web software business are expected to rise about 25% sequentially in the third fiscal quarter of 2000, but Shockwave.com spending will continue to be a drag on the bottom line." In other Apple related stocks today, Adobe rose 3 13/16 to 66 1/2 on the first day after their 2 for 1 stock split. Banc of America Securities initiated coverage on Symantec with a buy recommendation boosting Symantec 7/8 to close at 45 7/16. Intel advanced strongly ahead of a late afternoon analysts meeting starting at 5:00 PM EST at Intel's web site. Hewlett-Packard bounced back from yesterday's losses, up 4 1/8 to close at 71 1/8. Apple's Power PC partners IBM and Motorola both ended the day up strongly. IBM announced a US$1.5 billion contract with Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY). However, Microsoft and Compaq continued their loosing streak after analysts grew pessimistic about Microsoft's latest quarterly earnings. Dell barely closed higher after spending the day in negative territory. Gateway closed up strongly. 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.
[4:00 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Stock Markets Soars, Apple Climbs 1 1/2 Points Closer To A New High
by Wes George