Rob L

Apple vs. Bank of America: When "Whisper Numbers" Come Home to Roost

I agree with your "game" aspect but disagree with you when you state that prior earnings don't matter. Apple increased yesterday from the open 'because they beat' (personally I think it should be "because analysts missed' or something similar). Certain stockholders panicked yesterday mainly because of the low balled guidance. The only reason the stock moved up over the course of the day is because people looked at that earnings beat and remembered the similar situation from the previous qtr, realizing that what Apple says about the future really doesn't have much weight, BUT had Apple not beaten that reassurance definitely wouldn't have been there and this stock would have continued to deteriorate during the day. I think had Apple come in lower than the estimates yesterday, even a penny lower, we'd be at about 130 today, not 165. We'd have opened at about 145 and continued lower, not higher.