“No, Apple’s new head of retail Angela Ahrendts did not sell $5.3M in shares,” Matthew Panzarino reports for TechCrunch. “An SEC filing reported on today shows that amount being withheld for tax purposes, though some sites are reporting she sold them.”
Panzarino reports, “If you actually read the form, you’ll note that footnote 2 clearly states that, ‘Shares withheld by Registrant to satisfy the minimum statutory tax withholding requirements on vesting of restricted stock units. No shares were sold.‘ (Emphasis ours).”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Is this the reason for the $4 drop in AAPL at 1 pm EDT?
It’s 2 pm EDT and the drop is now only $1.13. This stuff goes on all day long as the day traders, professional and amateur, play their games. The wind changes and someone either freaks or goes euphoric…
Derek, I have been watching the AAPL daily chart for more than a decade now. I know how to recognize when a news event occurs simply by how the stock price reacts. Something hit the news at 1 pm EDT that caused a precipitous drop of almost $5 in just a few minutes. That same drop was not mirrored in the DOW or the NASDAQ, so it looked to be Apple specific. Usually, when this happens it is some inane bit of garbage that gets picked up by CNBC and broadcast on TV to all the AAPL “investors” out there. A rumor that Angela Ahrendts had sold a large block of stock is just the type of thing I’m talking about here.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=AAPL+Interactive#symbol=aapl;range=1d;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;
Of course, it’s not the kind of thing I’m going to react to by making trades, but I do watch for these kinds of things. It is the kind of thing the amateur day traders go nuts over…until they fond out it isn’t true. That’s exactly the pattern here.
It is my belief that the moment to moment affect of day traders is underestimated. When I’ve posted before about this subject, there has always been someone to point out that the big buyers from market funds or pension funds have the greater heft. But watching these massive swings within the matter of an hour or less tell me the opposite. There are OTHER people out in the market with big wads of cash playing on the monkey bars. And they’re NOT very smart.
Therefore, I can surmise, there are some parasites out there in the market how watch and count on the stupid behavior of these day traders, cleaning up by either luring them into a hole where they can rape them blind, or cleaning up after the day traders have perpetrated their own mess.
I am reminded of natural systems, wild creatures, predators and prey, as well as evolution. Except what we’re watching is many orders of magnitude faster than the natural world. Day traders beware of the jungle.
Brian Sullivan on Yahoo! finance manipulates stocks calling investors selling AAPL earlier.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/talking-numbers/split-or-no-split–this-chart-says-sell-apple-145645754.html
This stuff is so hilarious. The ‘experts’ herd the investors like cattle. I love this line:
Newton pointed out that Apple’s prior high will act as critical resistance for the stock.
Yeah, now that you’ve put the idea in their head. Ooo! Now $700 is magically a barrier.
I need not let loose my usual stream of adjectives. You know what I think about these analcysts.
Agreed. NEVER, EVER put faith in the voodoo that passes for technical analysis. Ever. The quote you profiled is evidence of the BS that is technical analysis.
And so typical of MarketWatch, CNBC et al is to generate noise, not news. It’s ready-fire-aim, not facts or insight. It’s food for twitchy, over-caffeinated day traders. And none of their drivel is worth your time.
Stick to facts and fundamentals. As correctly reported in the article referenced at the top, Arendts had to sell part of her stock grant to cover the taxes to be paid, plain and simple. To say otherwise is sloppy reporting at best, or an outright lie, not that this hasn’t happened before in the financial tabloid websites and TV networks.
My advice: ignore the noise. Focus on the fundamentals and the cash generation growth of your investments. Go outside and enjoy the summer – the stock market will still be there tomorrow. And so will Apple, contrary to what the breathless, click-whoring tabloid media would like you to believe. After all, they have ads to sell and clicks to capture.
Have a nice weekend.
Thanks! So far so good. You too!
Your ‘usual stream of invective’ seems more like it
It gets repetitive and pointless.
But I like it
“Oops”
the F$#@! shorts are trying to play their game but it’s not working that well today!