Nasdaq Posts 6th Consecutive Gain, Apple Closes Lower

The big news today was that AOL Time Warneris America Online raised the price of its service to US$23.90 per month, up from US$21.95 per month. Why? Well, they are worried about missing their numbers for the quarter and the US$1.95 extra per month will help keep that from happening. Despite the best efforts of Microsoft, AOLis market leadership means it is doubtful that their subscribers are likely to leave them, and that will no doubt mean a rate hike for the rest of us as well. AOLis price hike is likely to be followed by other dial-up services such as Earthlink. AOL moved higher to close at 57.24, up 0.64 (+1.13%), while Earthlink moved higher almost 4.9%. Another stock showing a sharp increase was Akamai, which moved higher by 17.5%. AKAM traded in heavy volume that was more than twice the average.

Those stocks, in addition to strength from Cisco and other networking stocks, helped the Nasdaq end with a gain for the 6th straight trading session, an impressive feat considering the climate on Wall Street. The Nasdaq started off strong, but spent the rest of the morning sheening back and forth across yesterdayis closing mark. The afternoon saw action cleanly in the black, and the index ended the day a bit more than 8 points higher. The Dow lost more than 80 points as tech stocks continued to benefit from a shift in equities. Not all analysts see investors feasting on milk and honey though, from a CBS Marketwatch report:

"People were under-invested, there were shorts to cover and all these factors came together at the same time, producing an explosive move," Boockvar continued. "But it needs to be supported by fundamentals. If weaker trends get pushed out further, that could be the catalyst for another leg down."

HP has begun stepping up a recycling program for used PCs and electronics. For those who donit know, electronic equipment, especially computers, have lots of toxins and other hazardous waste. HP will pick up equipment from any manufacturer for a fee and recycle it. From an AP report:

"The lead is there to protect us from getting radiated from our televisions and our monitors," said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, a policy group trying to raise awareness of the need for recycling electronics. "But that lead is in a form that can easily migrate into the environment and impact the environment and impact human health."

Everybody, and their brother, is jumping on the wireless bandwagon. IBM has announced across the board wireless options in its portable line, servers, and "pervasive devices." From a NewsFactor report:

"Wireless is having profound implications for e-business," said Michel Mayer, general manager of IBMis pervasive computing division. "The potential explosion of people and devices connecting to the network is driving the need for customers to build infrastructures that are massively scalable, more reliable and that possess more intelligence than they do today. This is IBMis sweet spot."

The company is supporting the 802.11b protocol, the same technology that Appleis AirPort is based on, and to which Apple moved its on product line two years ago. This is another example of the industry leading where Apple follows. Compaq and Dell have also recently added comprehensive 802.11b support to their product lines. The NewsFactor report also has news that IBM has released a new handheld based on the Palm OS.

The Wall Street Journal gave Apple some press today about the company pre-loading of Mac OS X on all new Macs starting, give or take a bit, now. Their report was similar to the many other reports on the topic yesterday, but this was in the Wall Street Journal. One might almost think that it would have helped move Apple higher, but one would be mistaken. Though Apple opened up almost 50 cents higher, the stock moved lower as the morning progressed and settled into a narrow trading range. The lost 30 cents in the last half hour of trading to close near the dayis lows. AAPL traded in a range of 23.40 - 24.13.

Apple closed at 23.50, a loss of 6 cents (-0.25%), on light volume of 7,332,400 shares trading hands.

The Nasdaq closed at 2313.85, up 8.26 (+0.36%), on volume of 2,315,351,000 shares trading hands.

The Dow closed at 11257.24, a loss of 80.68 (-0.71%), on volume of 1,255,446,000 shares trading hands.

The S&P 500 closed at 1309.38, down 3.45 (-0.26%).

Adobe closed at 46.28, a gain of 0.79 (+1.74%), on light volume of 3,157,400 shares trading hands.

Akamai closed at 12.81, a gain of 1.91 (+17.52%), on heavy volume of 6,374,900 shares trading hands. Apple is a large shareholder of Akamai.

Earthlink closed at 14.15, a gain of 0.66 (+4.89%), on heavy volume of 7,088,400 shares trading hands.

IBM closed at 118.01, a loss of 1.03 (-0.87%), on light volume of 5,829,000 shares trading hands.

Macromediais closed at 25.69, a gain of 0.93 (+3.76%), on strong volume of 1,592,300 shares trading hands.

Motorola has won three more big contracts in Communist China. The company will be supplying infrastructure help to China United Telecommunications Corp. MOT closed at 16.60, a gain of 6 cents (+0.36%), on light volume of 8,247,100 shares trading hands.

Dell closed at 25.94, up a dime (+0.39%), on light volume of 29,626,200 shares trading hands.

Gateway closed at 19.08, a gain of 0.13 (+0.69%), on light volume of 1,423,000 shares trading hands.

Intel and Cisco are teaming up to develop new Gigabit technologies. INTC closed at 29.53, a loss of 0.37 (-1.24%), on light volume of 39,034,400 shares trading hands.

Microsoft is touting sales of handhelds based on their PocketPC platform. MSFT closed at 70.31, a gain of 1.52 (+2.21%), on volume of 41,272,400 shares trading hands.

For full quotes on all the companies mentioned in this article, we have assembled this set of quotes at Yahoo! for your reference. For other stories regarding Appleis stock activity, visit our updated Apple Stock Watch Special Report. You can also check out our Apple Financial Boards, a new moderated forum for Apple Investors and people who are interested in Appleis financial dealings.