“On Wednesday, January 14, the day Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced he would be taking a 6-month medical leave of absence, Apple shares closed at $85.33. From the moment that news hit the tape, shares began to slide, and by January 20, Apple had dipped to $78.20, with investors starting to worry that a kind of China Syndrome was happening to the company,” Jim Goldman writes for CNBC. “A complete meltdown, and no recovery.”

“But something bordering on miraculous has occurred since then: a rally, and a big one, in Apple shares. And it was ignited by the most unlikely of sources: financial fundamentals,” Goldman writes.

“In recessionary times, cash is always king, and Apple has a mountain of it,” Goldman writes. “But the company’s business is also surging. It’s an incredibly powerful one-two financial punch not replicated by any other company, to this degree, that I can think of.”

Goldman writes, “Last quarter’s earnings report was a financial OMG moment for so many skittish Apple investors wondering what market research to believe, and whether this company had some economic elixir that made it immune to the recession that was killing everyone else… And it’s not just Apple’s internal innovation and cash that make it intriguing; it’s also about how its competitors simply can’t seem to compete.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers "Lurker_PC," "JES42," and "Scopie" for the heads up.]