U.S. stock index futures are slightly lower this morning following a strong earnings report from Apple (AAPL) Tuesday after the closing bell. Investors are awaiting results from Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS). Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 3 points to 11,808.00, while S&P 500 futures declined 2.20 points to 1,292.50. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.75 point to 2,330.00.

U.S. stocks closed higher yesterday after better-than-expected manufacturing data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.43%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.14%. The Nasdaq 100 moved up 0.38%.

The day started off shaky for Apple Inc. (AAPL) after its leader and CEO, Steve Jobs, announced that he would be taking his second medical leave of absence yesterday.

The stock was in the red all day, but did rebound a bit at the end of the day, closing today's session down 2.2% to $340.65, after trading as low as $326.00 earlier in the day.

U.S. stock futures are mostly higher this morning as investors await earnings reports from several companies. However, shares of Apple Inc (AAPL) dropped in pre-market trading. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 37 points to 11,762.00 and S&P 500 futures gained 2.20 points to 1,292.20. Futures on the Nasdaq 100, however, dropped 12.50 points to 2,307.50.

U.S. markets were closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Day holiday. Stocks closed higher on Friday, with the Dow gaining 55.48 points, or 0.47%.

So it looks like COO Tim Cook will be in charge again over at Apple (AAPL). CEO Steve Jobs said Monday that he is taking another medical leave of absence, leaving responsibility for day-to-day decisions to Cook.

This is the third time Cook took up the reins, the first in 2004 when Jobs recovered from surgery for pancreatic cancer, and again in January through June of 2009 when Jobs had a liver transplant. Many people consider Cook to be Jobs's logical successor.

Following Thursday's market close, Microsoft (MSFT) reported its fiscal first quarter numbers, and, as Steven Mallas noted, it easily outpaced earnings estimates for the quarter.

Analysts had been expecting to see the company report earnings of 55 cents per share, but actual earnings came in well above at 62 cents per share.

It was a really good quarter for Microsoft, but revenues did not rise enough to stay above Apple's (AAPL) recent quarterly numbers. Microsoft had revenues of $16.2 billion during the quarter, up from $16 billion during its fourth quarter. Apple reported earlier this month it had revenues of $20.34 billion.

Apple (AAPL) soared past International Business Machines (IBM) to report a net profit of $4.31 billion in the September quarter, with revenues rising to $20.3 billion, up 67%. In a rare appearance on a quarterly conference call, CEO Steve Jobs said, "I don't usually participate in Apple's earnings calls ... but I just couldn't help dropping by for our first $20 billion revenue quarter."

Apple's success has been in developing gadgets that the public just falls in love with. Here are some numbers for some of these gadgets:

It's really amazing that something so technical -- that is, an antenna on a mobile phone -- can turn into a firestorm of controversy. But for Apple (AAPL), it is a sign that the company has become the global tech power. In fact, even Google (GOOG) looks like a slouch.

And as a result, the investor interest is at fever pitch, especially in anticipation of the company's quarterly report (which comes out at the end of trading today).

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) reported stellar, above-expectations quarterly results yesterday after market close. One would have thought that this company, in the midst of U.S. economic uncertainty, would have reported a mediocre quarter at best, but that wasn't the case. Apple outpaced expectations by $0.11 per share, shipped more Mac computers than during any quarter in its history, and saw a 38% revenue jump from the year-ago quarter.

As a nice reward for such a stellar quarter, the market took Apple out behind the woodshed and gave it a sound whipping. The reason? Apple's murky guidance for the fourth quarter. This from a company that almost always shoots low with guidance only to blow the numbers away. Add that to ongoing concern over the health of CEO Steve Jobs and you have a 10% drop in AAPL shares before the market opened this morning.

Is Apple the victim of outsized expectations? You bet. Just like Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) the other day -- which also reported a fantastic quarter but saw its shares pummeled right after results were announced -- Apple may be losing the ability to impress. In reality, both companies are doing excellent business in the face of gas and energy price spikes in addition to a six-month string of job losses in the U.S. Yet, the market slapped huge losses on both stocks based on what could be considered shaky speculation for future growth prospects.

On the other hand, Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) saw stock gains after reporting a better-than-expected $2.5 billion dollar quarterly loss last week. Talk about twisted.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is set to release Q1 earnings next Tuesday for the quarter ended in December. Average analyst estimates peg the tech company's earnings at $1.61 per share, which would be a 41% improvement on last year's quarterly earnings. Although some believe Apple is overvalued on the fundamentals and is overpriced, momentum can sometimes outweigh standard market measures.

Apple shares have hunkered down in recent days amid what the market must be considering a mediocre array of announcements this past Tuesday at Macworld. Although a cutting-edge laptop and what I consider to be a paradigm-shifting update to the Apple TV were both announced, there was no iPod or iPhone fever. Unfortunately, panicky market makers started sending Apple's shares down immediately.

But then again, Apple did say that it has sold 4 million iPhones since launch. Next week, we'll get to find out how many of those were sold for the holiday season this year, which could send Apple shares back on an upward trend again. What could be Apple's most anticipated quarterly results in the last four quarters is set for next Tuesday. Stay with BloggingStocks, as we'll delve into the results once they are released.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) just announced earnings -- up 67% -- that blew through estimates, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

Last week I wondered whether -- despite a gain in PC market share -- Apple might be over-valued. But that was assuming its earnings would grow 19% in 2008. Yet if Apple could continue its current pace of 67% earnings growth, it would be trading at a Price/Earnings to Growth (PEG) ratio of 0.73 -- which is significantly cheaper than the 2.6 PEG it would have assuming it grows 19%.

So why did Apple do so well? In its first full quarter of iPhone sales, Apple posted earnings of $904 million, or $1.01 a share, compared with $546 million, or 62 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue reached $6.22 billion, compared with $4.84 billion a year earlier and 9% more than Apple's own forecast of about $5.7 billion.

Apple is up 5.8% after-hours so there must be some aggressive short covering going on. Maybe there are even some buyers out there thinking Apple is cheap at a P/E of 49.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in Apple.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) just crushed their earnings and revenues for what typically is the slow first quarter. Usually the first quarter is met with a yawn. I have written three posts in the last month that this first quarter would be different, and it was. The street was looking for earnings per share of $.63 -- .66 and Apple reported $.87 on revenues of $5.26 billion, 100 million more than estimates.

What tipped me off is Wall Street analysts usually leave big tech names alone during the first quarter and maybe do a quiet, back-of-the -envelope mid-quarter update. Apple just had too much momentum exiting the December 2006 quarter and the outlook was just getting too big. So four firms put out "real" updates and began to hint of better-than-expected first quarter numbers. I have been recommending Apple to my web site Insider Insights Club Members since last September at $66, when the site opened. But I have been on this story for three years plus and recommending the shares to my old institutional clients since $12.

Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) ended the day at $75.26, up $2.03 or 2.77% as the good news that Apple was expected to post another quarter of double digit growth thanks to iPod sales, with a 27% growth in revenue, hit the financial world.

In the comments to yesterday's closing bell post, a commenter takes me to task for earlier stating that stock options were 'old news.' At the time Apple's announcement of irregularities had been mulled over and reported for two weeks. For two weeks after every closing bell post I pointed out new stories that provided a take on the options scandal. After that, my response was that after a solid two weeks of hammering the price was built into the stock, barring any major surprises, and yesterday's announcement that Steve Jobs may have been way more involved was something that was going to be a surprise.

Todays almost 3% leap in price demonstrates this ably. Apple's current stock fluctuations are more tied into worries about iPod demand and company profit than the stock options scandal. Why is this? Look around at the recent scads of CEO firings throughout the financial world. Some 135 companies were heavily using backdated stock options in such a manner that the SEC is investigating them, of those, Apple has been one of the few to somewhat publicly deal with the issue. The other 134 are still trying to remain under the radar of find someone to blame. As backdated options scandals grow Apple is going to be one brand name in an explosion of scandals, and its attempt to handle the scandal instead of sit on it seems to be paying off.

Tobias S. Buckell is an author, professional blogger, and freelance writer. He owns securities in Apple.

Today saw a massive leap in Apple's stock price, a $6.40 leap, some 11.83%, ending the day at $60.50. On the evening of the 18th I noted that at $52.90, with basically one trading day to go, Apple was very attractively priced due to fears of back-to-school iPod sales forcing it down and the stock options scandal.

As Grant Robertson blogged earlier this morning, a 48% increase in profit, 1.3 million Macs moved, and 8.1 million iPods sold, made for some great numbers. Fears about the iPod? Sales were up 32% this quarter, and the next quarter is usually a more standout one for Apple. They seemed pretty psyched up in their conference call about a lot of really good numbers.

Apple ended the day up at $52.90, up just over a percent, though still at a low point when compared to a month ago. The small bounce comes with only about 24 hours left to go before Apple announces earnings. Could the stock have bottomed out already? Unless some very negative news comes out tomorrow, there is a strong indication this long slide might be ending. Apple will be heading into areas historically good for it, out of the summer doldrums and into the back-to-school season of August and September where new product announcements and buzz bring it back up. As a result, at the low $50s, the stock is still very attractively priced.

Meanwhile, the backdated stock options scandal is starting to spread out to companies other than Apple in the media spotlight, which means this negative scandal will fade from interest aimed particularly at Apple.

[Disclosure: I own Apple stock at the date of this post]