Steve Jobs’ job swap appears to have been priced in to Apple’s stock.
The morning after the night before, Apple’s Thursday shares opened 2.9 percent lower than Wednesday’s close at 365.08. But they rebounded immediately in early-morning trading and, by midday, the price had regained to 372.77, just 0.91 percent down. And by the time trading closed at 4 p.m. ET, the stock wound up losing just 0.65 percent of its value, or $2.46, to close at $373.72.
Apple’s stock is actually up 3 percent from the levels it traded at around a week ago. Jobs’ announcement specifically hasn’t had a massive effect so far.
The broader picture, however, is that AAPL is now nearly a tenth shy of its July 26 all-time high of 403.41, from which it has been falling despite a mid-August rally. And, of course, it should be noted that the overall market has been off substantially during the last few weeks.
The Nasdaq fell 1.95 percent Thursday, meaning that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) significantly outperformed the market. One day certainly won’t tell the story of Apple’s post-Jobs era, but longstanding fears of a huge run on Apple’s stock following his departure did not materialize.
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