I'd like to see the price of Apple's stock drop back to where I could afford it again.

Do I think they're any worse off with all this bad press?

No worse than Microsoft is with the reports all over the web that Vista is as swiss cheesy as XP.

Has anybody else noticed that by 2:20pm CST today, almost 62 million shares of Apple stock has been traded?

That's some movin' and shakin' for sure!

As of the close today, Apple is UP- by a penny.

Correction: as of 6:20PM, Apple is UP another 18 cents in after-hours trading.

Am I the only one to see that this MIGHT have been a clever way of stock manipulation?

Had I the extra cash, I would've been buying the stock.

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Guest wrote:
Am I the only one to see that this MIGHT have been a clever way of stock manipulation?

Had I the extra cash, I would've been buying the stock.

Heh. You're overlooking the super easy stock manipulation. Bad news breaks while market is closed. AAPL down $4 next day mid-session. Analysts put out their press releases, they get picked up by all the major Mac news sites. TMO comes to mind. AAPL up in late session trading, finishes even on the day. This is a daytrader's wet dream.

Since AAPL pays no dividend, the only day that news really matters is the day after quarterly reports. Now, ready for a slightly more clever, but still textbook manipulation? Let's say you're an analyst who has no more inside information than the average Mac rumor site publisher, i.e. none based on track record this decade. To push your favorite stock, you start taking the iPhone rumors off the shady sites and sending in "reports" to your clients. Over a quarter, this builds up the share price close to your "target". You then sell and wash your hands before MWSF comes and goes for the 4th time with no iPhone. Might even work again next year! Stay tuned...

Interesting...

OK, you guys all know the drill now. When AAPL takes a dive in the morning, buy, buy, buy!!! Gene Munster will issue his analyst dojo about halfway through the trading day. It will be posted on TMO and other authoritative Mac news sites within minutes. It will basically say that the news story refers to "Steven X. Jobs" not "Steven P. Jobs" so this must be some other part time Apple employee who took 7.5 million options without board approval. Stuff like that happens all the time. Then the stock will rebound to $81ish. And to make money at this game, you sell at the end of the day!

And those of you who aren't playing... By looking to stock analysts for authoritative information on anything, let alone Apple's future product plans, you make this game possible. Thanks to all of you for helping out!!

I doubt it was manipulation. Instead, a stupid story, that for some reason is now all of the sudden news, was likely an opportunity for smart quick acting people.

These stories that broke last night, reveal no new information except that Jobs might have hired a lawyer. I say might because the stories are just rumors since Jobs has not confirmed the stories.

Furthermore, guess what? All CEOs that are being individually sued by investors hire private lawyers. Guess what else? The company pays for the fancy lawyers.

The CEOs hire private lawyers because company lawyers do not always have to honor client lawyer privileges when the client is the company as opposed to the CEO.

In conclusion, the stories offered nothing new. Do people really think an uneducated person like Jobs understands all the accounting complexities that accountants like Fred Anderson have to go to school for years to begin to understand. That is why CEOs hire accountants. If I was a CEO and the accountant came up to me an gave me a gazillion options, I would assume they were legally given. After-all, the options do not benefit the accountant, and that is the person's job.

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Guest wrote:
Am I the only one to see that this MIGHT have been a clever way of stock manipulation?

Had I the extra cash, I would've been buying the stock.

PS

If you are not paying an analyst's salary, you should not be listening to his advice. He has his own interests, and your not among them.

I suspect, however, in this case, Gene's company's investors are invested in Apple, and therefore he is working to keep the stock moving upwards.

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Terrin wrote:
PS

If you are not paying an analyst's salary, you should not be listening to his advice. He has his own interests, and your not among them.

I suspect, however, in this case, Gene's company's investors are invested in Apple, and therefore he is working to keep the stock moving upwards.

Looks like The Steve is in The Thick of this.

Here's the rub... Here's what's wrong with this whole Munster/Wu thing on TMO and other Mac news sites. When Gene Munster cuts a wet fart, he sends out a note to the news sites with his story of why it's great news for Apple and restates his target price for AAPL. We Apple partisans like hearing this from an "expert" on the stock, and we generally rally around the rosy interpretation and outlook. Meanwhile. Munster/Wu establish themselves not just as authorities on the stock, but authorities on everything from what went on four years ago between Jobs and the board to whether Apple will deliver a real iPod Video (remember when that was the hot rumor?) or an iPhone. To their stock trading clients, this makes him look like a real authority on the company, someone who is really plugged in. Of course, he and the other big name AAPL analysts are plugged in and running the generators. Look at today. Bad news tanks the stock. Munster grinds up his PR machine before lunch. Stock rebounds because Munster says Jobs wasn't involved and all the Mac sites carry it. Meanwhile, The Financial Times prepares a story for tonight claiming that Jobs was super involved, to the tune of 7.5 million share options.

How do you guys think this will play out tomorrow? Anyone else here at the very least think that Gene Munster and others who play the same game are totally full of crap? Do you think Munster will issue a release tomorrow in light of the Financial Times story? He could at least apologize to everyone who took his recommendation for being a clueless fool. If Gene Munster were a stock (symbol SOL), my target price would be $0.

Those who have been following my commentary on this Apple options backdating thing know that I think the SEC is looking to Enronize some company that really screwed this up. The real issue is expensing options. Apple still doesn't do this. It's a proposed FASB rule. Dell does it. Microsoft does it. You can bet that execs at those companies are chomping at the bit to see the SEC go after Apple and/or some of its key execs over backdating. But hey, we have Gene Munster to assuage all of our concerns and make everything alright...

I want Apple to continue to thrive. But this options thing is a really scary issue. And when people we think are our friends (Gene Munster, etc.) use the situation to boost their balance sheets in the short term, we ought to reconsider what we think about them.

As with all such matters, the exact facts will determine the result, but if Steve has to resign (to stay out of jail) you will not think it overblown.

Just read the stories of the numbers of CEOs who had to go because of this.

There are plenty of stories with CEOs going to jail. Those companies, however, cooked the books big time (e.g. Enron, WorldComm). The government came to them, not vice-versa. There is nothing to suggest Jobs did anything wrong. He had nothing to gain, everything to lose.

Jobs is a guy who already was worth a billion dollars before coming back to Apple. He worked for free for the first year. Freaking squeaky clean Al Gore is on the Board.

I will tell you what might happen though. Anderson, and the lawyer lady, might try to point the finger at Jobs to try and save themselves. That happened in the Worldcomm case.

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Guest wrote:
As with all such matters, the exact facts will determine the result, but if Steve has to resign (to stay out of jail) you will not think it overblown.

Just read the stories of the numbers of CEOs who had to go because of this.

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Bosco wrote:
How do you guys think this will play out tomorrow?

There are two different types of regular Joes trading stocks 1) investors, and 2) gamblers. The gamblers call themselves investors, but they trade on instinct, not research and careful analysis. Wall-street does not like Investors, but love gamblers. They love gamblers because they make money off of them no matter what. That is why everyday at the close of the markets, the brokers applaud. They make money everyday, whether you do or not.

It is the gamblers who get panicked over these so called news stores that do nothing to change the fundamentals of the company.

So tomorrow I will tell you what will happen, many gamblers will panic and sell. Investors who think Apple's fundamental business is still in shape probably will be the buyers.