Shares in Apple Inc. rose in afternoon trading Wednesday, as tech and Internet stocks rallied around AOL's December quarter earnings report. AOL reported a small profit of US$1.6 million (earnings per share of 1 penny), which compares to a loss of $1.96 billion (EPS of $18.52) in the year ago quarter. AOL was spunoff from Time Warner in late 2009.
For some reason, investors were cheered by this news, according to Markewatch, and became bullish on tech stocks. Shares of Microsoft traded higher at $28.67, up $0.21 (+0.74%); Cisco rose to $23.05, up 0.03 (+0.13%), Yahoo! rose to $15.46, up $0.29 (+1.91%); and Google's stock rose to $540.99, up $9.87 (+1.86%).
AAPL rose to $199.19 per share, a gain of $3.33 (+1.70%), on moderate volume in mid-afternoon trading session.
*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a small share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.