“It’s funny how perceptions can vary so widely. After spending a day at San Francisco’s Moscone Center on Jan. 15 covering Steve Jobs’ keynote address and attending Macworld Expo, I was taking a break and watching CNBC. One of the CNBC commentators, Pete Najarian, called the Jobs keynote ‘disappointing’ and went on to rip the company. Everything the chief executive revealed was expected, he said. With no surprise product, there’d been no upside possible for the stock,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek.
“I had seen how the markets initially reacted to Apple’s (AAPL) announcements. At one point, Apple stock had dropped by nearly 8% during the session, down almost $10 a share, to 164.66. By the close, it had recovered somewhat to 169.04, but still lost more than 5% for the day,” Hesseldahl reports.
“Watching Najarian, I chuckled. Here was one who doesn’t get it. And there appeared to be many more like him out there. More than 83 million Apple shares changed hands on Jan. 15, not a record, but unusually high. Many clearly opted to sell on news they judged to be disappointing,” Hesseldahl reports. “For those who bought before Macworld in hopes of cashing in on a keynote bounce, I have only one word: suckers.”
“So what to make of this year’s keynote-day sell-off? More than a few analysts are calling it a buying opportunity. Analysts at Piper-Jaffray, Morgan Stanley, Pacific Crest, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank all see the pullback as a chance to buy before another run,” Hesseldahl reports.
“What’s to like? Plenty. Mac and iPod sales are expected to show a single-quarter record when Apple reports its results for the final three months of 2007. And while iPhone sales—now totalling 4 million units since the late June launch—may be a little behind expectations, the handheld is already the second most popular smartphone in the U.S. A new version compatible with speedier next-generation cellular networks—expected sometime late this year—will go a long way toward winning international business,” Hesseldahl reports. “And then there’s the great unknown of AppleTV. Is it the next iPod? Will consumers flock to the idea of buying and renting iTunes video content from the comfort of the couch?”
Hesseldahl reports, “Either way, analysts don’t seem worried anything has fundamentally changed with this year’s Macworld pageant. Once that’s clear, all those who sold on what they thought was a bad keynote may feel like suckers, too.”
Full article here.
The stupidity of others is often profitable.