“U.S. stocks slipped as January’s retail sales were weaker than expected, dousing some optimism about the strength of the economy,” Christian Berthelsen and Chris Dieterich report for Dow Jones Newswires.
“The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 39 points, or 0.3%, to 12835 in midmorning New York trade. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 5.4 points, or 0.4%, to 1346 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 11 points, or 0.4%, to 2920,” Berthelsen and Dieterich report. “Nine of the S&P’s 10 sectors were in the red, led lower by financials and materials. Bank of America led blue chips lower, down 2.8%, followed by Aloca, down 1.9%.”
“The Commerce Department reported U.S. retail sales rose 0.4% in January to a seasonally adjusted $401.4 billion,” Berthelsen and Dieterich report. “Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected an increase of 0.9%. The soft results were due in part to a plunge in vehicle purchases, an indication that consumers may remain cautious amid a still-shaky economy.”
Berthelsen and Dieterich report, “In corporate news, shares of Apple edged up 0.2%, after Dow Jones Newswires reported the company is testing a new tablet computer with a smaller screen, as it looks to broaden its product pipeline.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple has over 25% of January’s seasonally adjusted U.S. retail sales in cash on hand.
Related article:
Apple, suppliers test iPad with smaller 8-inch screen, sources say – February 14, 2012
Yeah right. What a bunch of morons.
The headline states that the markets are down because of lower retail activity in January. But the sectors leading the decline were the perennial financial sector and materials. The retail sector wasn’t mentioned at all.
You cannot attribute day to day moves of the markets to specific reports/events, except those of great magnitude.
Watch the markets tomorrow. I’ll bet they are up, and it will be attributed to some other minor report/event. Bullcrap. Markets go up, and markets go down. That is the normal state of the markets. When a move lasts for 3 or more days, then you can attribute it to something specific.
It doesnt matter what affects the market, the news will be ‘unexpected’ to those that are supposed to know.
Give the iPad mini a rest already.
The markets are a casino and about as transparent as used motor oil.
I thought Apple was up due to the report of some lab creating 8 quantum entangled photons, up from the previous record of 6. Or something.
The Obama Failure.
Congratulations on being the first with an insipid comment attempting to inject polemics into the thread. You have won the coveted Plastic Coated Dildo Award for today.
Quality of stock reports slip; critics advance.
Everybody on the planet is going to forget all about a 7″, or 8″, iPad as soon as the next gen is released, because the iPad 2 will be offered with a $100 discount.
Those folks are crazier than a road lizard if they think that speculation on Apple releasing an 8″ tablet drove Apple’s price up.
Mere Balderdash!
I don’t doubt that Apple is testing smaller iPads, as well as other products that will never see the light of day.
What I do doubt is the advisability of including articles like this one at MDN. It’s a daily summary of market action, not an article about Apple.
When I click the link and read the article, now there is not even a mention of Apple.
Bad call, MDN!