Apple announced today that it has already sold 1 million iPads, coming in less than a month after it was launched. Wow. As pointed out in the press release, that means it took less than half the time it took the iPhone to get to 1 million (74 days).
And as an experienced trader and investor, I know to watch the reaction to the news rather than the news itself. Apple, a stock I'm accustomed to seeing up $10 or $20 in short swatches of time, is only up $6 (2%). That seems like a lot but in the Apple world, it's quite a pedestrian gain. In addition, on the chart, it looks like it's struggling to take out a new high (around the $267 level). Watch this development carefully. If it fails to take out a new high today or tomorrow, I think it's time to book profits.
Disclosure: I was in Apple briefly earlier in the year, but I unloaded my Apple stock around the $230 level. Doh! But sometimes you can't get greedy.
As a long-time journalist, I know that the media world is hopelessly slanted toward negative news. But unfortunately, this week's bad news is all real -- and not exaggerated. Greece is melting down, sovereign debt issues plague the globe, and now we have a massive environmental and economic catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. Can you cut us a break, boss?
Here's a rundown on what's going on on this dreary Monday:
- The Gulf oil spill will probably take months to contain (Washington Post)
- BP says it's ready to pay (Reuters) But it also says it's not to blame... figure that one out.
- Will the spill affect Obama's new "drill, drill, drill" policy?(CNN) That's what Barry gets for pretending to be Ronald Reagan.
- Deepwater Horizon had a history of problems, before the spill (Nola.com)
- Apparently blowout preventers fail frequently... (Kansascity.com)
- On to Greece... The Baklava Bailout is finally here (BusinessWeek). That's the slowest cooking Baklava, ever.
- Germany's share is $30B (Associated Press). And Angela Merkel can say goodbye now.
- Apple iPad 3G estimated to have sold 300K on launch weekend (Apple Insider). AT&T engineers trying to figure out what to do now.
- Is an anti-trust investigation at hand for Apple's app world? (New York Post). Steve Jobs' squeaky clean, integrated world may be just a little too integrated.
- Roger Ebert hates 3D (Newsweek). Funny, given that he's not exactly 2D.
- Is IronMan 2 about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs? (TechCrunch) If so, I'm glad they went with an allegory, instead of real life.
- A detailed analysis of Groupon (TechCrunch).
