Closed markets in the Big Apple

Closed markets in the Big Apple. Anxiety no doubt will return to the Apple stock today as chief Steve Jobs announces that he will take another leave of absence to concentrate on his health. This is the third time that this has happened. The new guy is Tim Cook. Or should we say the old guy, Cook has been at Apple since 1998. Cook is 50 years old, and worked at both Compaq and HP. Don't fret Apple shareholders, as this San Francisco Chronicle article points out, Cook has been running the company for the last two years anyhow ---> Get well, Jobs, but time for Cook.



Like them, we wish Jobs well, but something tells me that this might be "it", there might not be the same comeback. I hope that I am completely wrong. As the school war-cry goes, "we have Steve Jobs, on our team, we have Steve Jobs on our team, we got the best team in the world." I guess that all you have to know is that Apple's stock was down nearly eight percent in Frankfurt yesterday. So, a company that used to be 320 billion Dollar market cap will slip below that on this suggestion.



AT THE SAME time as this announcement, we are anticipating earnings from Apple today. Briefing.com suggests that the quarter consensus view is for 5.39 Dollars worth of earnings, annualise that and you get nearly 22 Dollars rolling. So expect the NASDAQ futures to be pounded more later in the day, note that the Apple earnings are after market. Perhaps the prospect of an Apple beat will offset the losses somewhat, I would think that the stock in New York will end anywhere between three and four percent down in normal trade. We shall see.