MediaWatch: Market takes knife to Apple, determined to find worm
JOHN MURRELL, from the Mercury News wraps ups Apple’s latest issues with investors:
After market close Tuesday, Apple proudly rolled out quarterly results that blew past analysts’ estimates and showed strength across the board. Its reward? Around midday, the stock was down a stomach-churning 19 percent before climbing halfway back in the afternoon. Investors brushed aside the good news, dug through the numbers until they found a flattening of iPod unit sales, and took the company’s usual conservative guidance as a sign that the nation’s broader economic woes are now weighing on Apple and everything is going to hell. Or something like that. “They’re just knocking the cover off the ball, but no one seems to care,” said Scott Rothbort, president of LakeView Asset Management. Attempts to put the results in perspective and interpret Apple’s strategy were drowned out by the stampede for the exits.