Waiting For Earning, AAPL Drops

Intel, Intel, Intel. Itis as if Wall Street hasnit even noticed the most important company in the computer world, Apple, will be announcing their own results today. Intel announced earnings yesterday afternoon, and much of todayis trading news centered around that companyis impact on the rest of the markets. Many computer companies are announcing this week, and Appleis announcement this afternoon seems to be getting lost in the haze that is resulting. That may or may not be a good thing as Apple is expected to announce a large loss, the first such loss since Steve Jobs took over the helm of the company in 1997.

The biggest news of the day regarding Apple has been a report from Andrew Neff of Bear Sterns who suggested that what Apple really needs to do is drop those pesky low MHz PowerPC processors in favor of Intelis speedier line. Thanks for the note, weill get right on that. You can read the full report for more information.

The markets were a mixed bag today as tech stocks traded higher and Blue Chips traded down. Though Intel turned in ok results and warned for the next quarter, analysts seem to feel that news was already built into the stock. The result for Intel was to close slightly lower, while the rest of the tech industry trended higher. What will be most interesting for AAPL shareholders is whether the analysts will consider Appleis bad news to already be factored in to that stock too. That, of course, will depend on exactly what that bad news is. Apple announces at 4:00 PM CST, and you can get the announcement at The Mac Observer as soon as it goes up.

Apple dropped today in anticipation of the loss that will be announced today. The stock closed at 16 13/16, down 5/16 (-1.82%) on strong volume of 13,166,900 shares trading hands.

The Nasdaq closed higher at 2682.77, a gain of 64.22 (+2.45%).

The Dow closed lower at 10584.34, lower by 68.32 (-0.64%).

The S&P 500 joined the Nasdaq to close at 1329.62, a gain of 2.97 (+0.22%).

Akamai continues to benefit on recent analysis stating that broadband was important. Like no one knew that. In any event, Akamai traded higher again to close at 32 3/8, higher by 11/16 (+2.17%) on volume of 4,304,100 shares trading hands. Apple is a major shareholder of Akamai.

Adobe announced an investment, something that is a tad rare in the Post-Startup Era, in Kinecta Corp. Kinecta develops technologies for content distribution. Note the timing that corresponds with the Macromedia and Allaire merger. Adobe closed at 53 1/2, a gain of 2 5/8 (+5.16%), on volume of 4,890,700 shares trading hands.

IBM posted excellent results and the stock benefited accordingly. Get the full story from C-Net. The stock closed at 96 11/16, a gain of 3 15/16 (+4.25%) on volume of 9,068,900 shares trading hands.

Motorola traded higher to close at 22 7/16, a gain of 1 3/16 (+5.59%) on volume of 14,755,100 shares trading hands.

Earthlink has almost doubled in the last two weeks. The stock closed higher today at 9 1/16, a gain of 1 7/16 (+18.85%) on strong volume of 3,913,800 shares trading hands.

Gateway closed at 20.23, almost unchanged with a gain of 0.07 (+0.35%), on volume of 3,334,100 shares trading hands.

Dell closed at 22 11/16, a gain of 1 3/16 (+5.52%) on volume of 38,720,900 shares trading hands.

Hewlett Packard closed at 31 5/8, a gain of 1 1/4 (+4.12%) on volume of 9,938,000 shares trading hands.

Intel closed lower at 30 1/2, lower by 7/8 (-2.79%) on massive volume of 111,894,304 shares trading hands.

Microsoft closed higher at 52 15/16, up by 3/8 (+0.71%) on strong volume of 34,940,700 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.