“U.S. stock futures were mostly higher on Tuesday ahead of Citigroup Inc.’s earnings report, while Apple Inc.’s shares fell in premarket trading, weighing on the technology sector,” Polya Lesova reports for MarketWatch.
“Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained [25] points to [11,750] and S&P 500 futures rose [0.40] points to [1,290],” Lesova reports. “U.S. markets were closed Monday in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday. Asian markets finished mostly higher overnight and European stocks rose in intraday trading Tuesday.”
“Shares of Apple slumped [4.47%] in premarket trading after its Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs announced Monday that he will take a medical leave of absence to focus on his health. He will retain his CEO post and remain involved in big decisions for the company,” Lesova reports. “After the closing bell, Apple is expected to report fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $5.41 a share, up from $3.67 a share in the same period a year ago, according to analysts polled by FactSet Research.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So far, investor concerns over Jobs’ health appear to have been largely built-in to AAPL’s price and/or confidence in Tim Cook is, rightfully, strong.
Don’t Panic.
Better yet, remain calm and confident.
Shopping time, I reckon…
Don’t panic…
@Steve: “The Force will be with you, always”
Silvio de Mari alias “macsilvio”
MDN take, exactly. The $450 targets also have some Jobs-related uncertainty built in. And it doesn’t hurt that they’re once again about to blow us all away with earnings and revenue growth.
Millionaires will be made today. Drive the stock down in advance of earnings. The shorts will really make it today. Steve Jobs ill again, every shorters wet dream.
Next week after earnings the 10% that will be erased today will be back. iCal that for me.
I’ll have to wait until it bottoms out. It killed me to sell everything, but I had to. Just can’t take the risk in this economy. Will buy back after things settle down. Took all the strength I could muster to hit the sell button. Luckily the meager amount I own compared the big guns have will probably register as a 0.01 blip on the Apple Earthquake meter.
I’m short (always have protection for AAPL earnings) and doing quite well thank you. Also picking up shares at reduced prices. It’s a win win situation.
Sell? I just transferred $100k into my investment account so I could buy more. I was thinking there might be a 20% drop at the open. Now it looks a bit unlikely.
There will be some good buying opportunities over the next few days.
By the end of the day it’ll be a non event.
This is no more than the ritual shorting dance before EVERY’ Apple earnings announcement.
Given ‘other news’ I would say this is a massive endorsement of Apple’s strength.
I am a little disappointed that the drop in the stock is only 4.5%. Is it what Wall Street thinks Steve jobs is worth? Typically when a top CEO leaves the stock appreciates by 15%. Hey, even when Mark Hurd left HP the stock dropped 20% and he is nothing like Steve.
The gap is shrinking as we type. Down to 3.25% now.
Apple is already undervalued compared to the S&P. Noone quite knows why, though some people think it’s due to Steve’s health, which makes them look smart.
Investors and fans of the brilliant Mr. Jobs have to consider the possibility this time Steve may not be able to return. Fortunately he has built a powerful management team with like-minded vision.
Without Jobs, are microsoft, google, motorola, dell, et al. any better? No.
Would Apple be any worse? Not much.
I’ve tried reading MDN’s take about 5 times, successively more slowly each time… and I still can’t understand it. It makes no sense, grammatically. I’m thinking someone didn’t double back to proofread.
I think I get it now; the “and/or” is really throwing me off, since the flow of the sentence implies “confidence in Tim Cook” is part of the prepositional phrase “built-in to AAPL’s price.”
Still, confusing as hell.
Cook did a great job the first time, so why would it be any different this time. Also steve Jobs can still help out on anything Tim might need. All this stock drama is stupid!
@NeoVoyager : You’re right. The statement isn’t nearly as haughty and arrogant as we see normally either. But hey, they just do what they are told by their bosses at Cupertino.
I panicked and lost! Should have listened to you guys…