Closing Bell: Great recovery continues, except for tech

Posted Jul 18th 2008 4:13PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Citigroup Inc. (C)

Today might have been one of the more boring options expiration dates. If you pretend that technology stocks weren't a part of the market, today was rather stable considering the major bounces we have seen. Oil stayed under $129.00 per barrel, which didn't give the bears much meat to chew on. We had essentially no government economic data today. Here are today's unofficial closing levels:

DJIA 11,496.24 (+49.58)
S&P500 1260.65 (+0.33)
NASDAQ 2282.78 (-29.52)
10YR T-Note 4.081% (+0.043%)
52-WEEK LOWS
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is set report earnings after the close of trading. Read a FULL EARNINGS PREVIEW. Shares of Apple were down over 3% at $166.10 in today's final minutes of trading.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was a pleasant surprise for the markets. Imagine losing $2.5 Billion and that still being "less bad" than almost everyone was calling for. Shares were up 9% at $19.60 in today's final minutes of trading.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) shares were down a tad under 10% at $480.14 after the company's earnings report yesterday was deemed a miss and after the company warned that the current ad spending market is under pressure from macro-trends.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) also saw its share of weakness with shares down 6.5% in the final trading minutes at $25.73 as its earnings were also deemed light. Most operations look like they are holding up but the company warned about its online business being under pressure.

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) saw shares up a sharp 8% to $2.27 by the final minutes today as the last FCC commissioner has reportedly outlined terms to approve the 18 month old satellite radio merger.

Tags: advertising, apple computer, AppleComputer, online advertising, OnlineAdvertising, satellite radio, SatelliteRadio

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-18-2008 @ 4:47PM

Beltway Greg said...

You've got to keep everything in perspective with Apple. Last year they bounced to $150 in July only to fall to $115 and recover in Jan. 08 to $203.00 and of course that was followed by another sell-off to $115 only to be followed by the mother of all bounces back to the $180s. What have we done other than line my pockets with dough? Once again I cannot thank all of you enough. Where do we go from here? Back in April, after earnings were released, Apple streaked towards $170 dropped into the $150s and finished the after-hours session virtually unchanged. If I were a betting man, and of course I am, why would I expect anyone to change their behavior patterns. Apple will post earnings of $1.17, provide tepid guidance, and fall into the $140s only to reach $260 by Jan. 09. Will I be short going into earnings? Nope. Will I short coming out of earnings like last year? Perhaps.
This company just had one of the greatest tech product launches of all time and it doesn't move.
Oh well.

Beltway Greg

7-23-2008 @ 7:19PM

reno said...

That's the way to do it Beltway!

7-19-2008 @ 7:52AM

Vinny said...

Proof that we are too stupid for words is to listen to a lot of people use the DOW as a barometer of the economy in this country. We are fed this informational meaningless crap 10 times a day as if the fortunes of 30 companies on the DOW list has any impact on our lives, unless of course you have a huge amount of money invested.
More political 'feel good' BS that we are thrown just like a bone to a dog. 'Keep the uneducated masses confused and happy, with some terrorist fear thrown in' and all will be well. At least that's what our 'masters' believe.
Not too surprising that we are in the middle of a melt down with so many stupids out there that will buy into any old lies and spin they are thrown. They just suck it up like the Bush WMD mushroom clouds were supposed to be ready to blow us all to hell. Are we capable of 'getting real'. Based on past history, we are not.
Vinny