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.

"By now, everyone probably knows that Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs will be taking another medical leave of absence," says Geoffrey Seiler.

The editor of BullMarket.com explains, "We'd use the weakness in Apple shares to accumulate the stock. The last time Job took medical leave was in 2009 when the stock was trading in the mid $80s.

"Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook will take over the day-to-day operations while Jobs is on leave. Cook previously filled in for Jobs in 2004 when Jobs was battling pancreatic cancer and in 2009 when Jobs was recovering from a liver transplant.

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.

Well, maybe not the very last word ever, but for now this is it. The poll results on eight key questions are in. Although such a small sampling is not conclusive, it may be broadly indicative of investor sentiment.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is among the most admired, talked about and intriguing companies in the investment world. This story is the fifth in a series that started off pondering Apple's cash stash and what good it was, and leading up to this polling review.

For the past few days I have been writing about Apple Inc. (AAPL) and what it might do with its growing pile of cash, promoting a dividend rather than any misadventures or allowing the cash to continue to drag down earnings per share.

This is not Apple's plan and many readers agree. They believe Steve Jobs and company know what's best about everything and have done fine by them -- the latter part is certainly true.

Today I put it to our readers to check current sentiment.

Steve Jobs, the illustrious CEO and the heart and soul of Apple Inc. (AAPL) would have you believe that Apple cannot issue a dividend to shareholders because of the scary competitive business environment. He conveys to us that they need the money to overcome hardship and if the right opportunity comes along make key acquisitions.

This is utter nonsense, a supreme untruth, wasted breadth and a failure to come to grips with reality. In the past quarter Apple increased its cash and short term investments to $50 billion as I wrote it would six weeks ago.

Apple currently has 914 million outstanding shares. With the stock trading around $300 per share, a 2% dividend yield would require $6 per share or, $5.5 billion dollars annually to cover the distribution.

Corporate America is hoarding cash and none more than Apple Inc. (AAPL). The ever increasing pile of cash at Apple increases the temptation to do something, but what?

Steve Jobs is reticent to start paying a dividend primarily for symbolic reasons. To give Apple's cash stash some perspective, the cash in of itself, without the actual company would represent the 45th largest company in the United States, right behind, Boeing Co. (BA) at $50.27 billion and ahead of Home Depot (HD) at $48.19 billion. It is even conceivable that the cash exceeds Boeing's capitalization, since six weeks have passed since the quarter ended.

Following its earnings announcement, shares of Apple (AAPL) are up nearly 3% Wednesday. Clearly, Apple is executing well, but given the broader market weakness, is Apple a buy?

JP analyst Mark Moskowitz, a long-time bull on the stock, says it is and has given the stock a price target of $400 per share -- a 55% increase from current levels.

"When Apple, Inc. (AAPL) was the soft cuddly underdog, everyone loved them and rooted for the company's success and, just like when the Boston Red Sox finally won the World Series, it was easy to be an AAPL fan as the company triumphed," suggests Paul McWilliams, who offers a bullish review of the stock prior to its earnings release after the market tomorrow.

The technology specialist and editor of Next Inning newsletter explains, "However, now that AAPL has won a position near the top of the world in both its markets and for the valuation awarded by the stock market, everything AAPL does is viewed with new and critical scrutiny.

"Indeed, Steve Jobs has fought and slain more dragons than I can count since founding Apple some 34 years ago.

"Jobs certainly didn't win all the battles. In the early years, he lost a number of the more important contests. However, he learned from his defeats and upon returning to AAPL earlier this decade, has proven himself to be the consummate Alpha warrior.

There is quite a bit of Internet chatter about Apple's (AAPL) new iPhone 4. Unfortunately for the tech company, a good deal of it is negative. There is a problem with reception for the iPhone, a problem that stems from touching "a spot" on the lower left side of the phone. This problem caused Consumer Reports to say that it "can't recommend the iPhone 4." On July 2, Apple tried to explain that the problem was not the antenna, but that it was a calculation mistake that makes it appear that there were two more bars of reception -- seriously. Apple did offer to fix the problem with a free software update (available in a "few weeks") for the iPhone 4, 3, and 3GS.

It seems that nothing is stopping Apple, Inc. (AAPL) from continuing to produce good numbers. In May of 2010, the tech giant increased its sales of Mac computers 8% from April and 35% year over year, according to NPD.

Further NPD findings show that the Mac has performed even better in June than in May over the last three years. This trend should not stop this year, as June will only be the third month of the new MacBook Pro's availability and seasonal education spending unlikely to falter.

Voltaire said, "Common sense is not so common" and George Bernard Shaw commented that having " ...enough of it was genius."

This reminds me of Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) or Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc. (AAPL) that have both displayed plenty of the former and arrived at the latter in their business pursuits.

Derivatives like Collateral Debt Obligations, or CDO's, and Credit Default Swaps, get their value from something else entirely: total hype in an environment of smoke and mirrors.

It turns out that if you build layer upon layer of derivatives until you have no idea what the original underlying value truly is, it becomes so convoluted that a genius can't comprehend it at all. It is self evident that nobody could even determine all the counter-party risk.

The world learned the details about the Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone 4G from Steve Jobs yesterday, and while he was presenting the amazing device with 100 new features and 24% slimmer profile, the company stock was sinking. Actually, most stocks were sinking.

The biggest reason for the stocks recent demise: the big cats decided it was time -- and others started to follow. There is nothing wrong with Apple at all and yesterday Jobs pushed out further in the race to produce the best product, stretching a lead he is intent on maintaining. I'm no Apple cheerleader having posted Apple $300 -- Not This Year! last February, when I thought the fanboys were confusing dreams with facts.

Despite the market's volatility, shares of Apple (AAPL) remain relatively stable as investors wait for Steve Job's presentation later today at Apple's annual developer's conference in San Francisco. It's widely expected that Jobs will announce the next iPhone, which will operate on fourth generation (4G) high-speed wireless networks.

Given the tough market, it's unlikely that such news will give Apple's stock much of a bounce. Shares trade around $254 per share. But the news of a new iPhone may help to support the stock and at current levels, Apple's shares look attractive.