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TUAW's Daily App: MarketDash
Yahoo! sent us word that its new finance app, called MarketDash, is in the store now. While I'm not personally a big stocks guy, I think it looks good, and the iTunes reviews so far agree. The app is designed to tap into Yahoo! Finance, so if you have an account running over there, you can just pull it up in the app and get right to work. The app provides real-time data on whatever stocks you have set up, and you can even control watch lists and check your portfolio options from the iPad (and those will be linked back to your account on the Web). MarketDash also includes content from Yahoo! Financial news feeds, and the iPad's touchscreen serves up a pretty good interface to the complicated charts and graphs you can see in the app. One of the iTunes reviews does say that some very specific features available on the Web aren't accessible in the app, but considering the app is just out of the gate, you can probably expect any really popular features to be brought over eventually. Seems like a groovy stock tool, especially if you're already using Yahoo! Finance. The app, like the service, is completely free to use.
Nokia shareholders and unions fight back against Microkia
Nokia shareholders are not very happy right now with NOK taking a 25 percent hit since the announcement of the Microsoft marriage. Stephen Elop, Nokia's first foreign-born CEO, is taking heat on multiple fronts even as he prostrates himself to the media in hopes of getting his message out. Already, we've heard numerous conspiracies calling Elop a "trojan horse," sent by Steve Ballmer to sabotage Nokia from within. Conspiraloons are quick to point to records showing Elop holding a significant number of Microsoft shares -- a situation that Elop says is temporary (and outdated) having already sold a majority of his Microsoft position with plans to sell off the rest in favor of Nokia stock just as soon as he's free to do so under regulatory moratoriums meant to prevent insider trading. Nevertheless, Nokia will be facing at least two very real showdowns on its near-term horizon. First, will be a battle with the Finnish trade union Pro which is demanding €100,000 (in addition to severance payments) for every Nokia employee that loses their job under Elop's new strategy -- money the unions says will be used for reeducation. The union estimates that Nokia could cut as many as 25% (5,000 people) of Nokia's 20,000 workers located in Finland. The second major hurdle facing Elop, and the board of directors that appointed him, will come at Nokia's Annual General Meeting for shareholders. Already, a cabal of nine frustrated shareholders have been grabbing attention with its "Nokia Plan B" proposal to oust Stephen Elop and return Nokia to a MeeGo focus giving Symbian a five-year minimum reprieve. The group has since disbanded after its plan was rejected by institutional investors. Nevertheless, we don't expect Symbian / MeeGo fans and developers to give up without a fight, and we expect Helsinki Fair Centre's Amfi Hall to be center-ring when the event kicks off on May 3rd in Helsinki.
CNBC: Apple should be world's most valuable company
Apple's latest earnings report has been available for three weeks, and analysts are chiming in with their 2011 assessment of the Cupertino company. Though Apple's stock dipped slightly after Steve Jobs announced another medical leave of absence, the release of the Verizon iPhone and Apple's 2011 forecast is causing the stock to rebound to an all-time high. Currently, the stock is trading at US$356, which is more than $160 higher than the 52-week low. Apple's stock is trending well and will continue to climb upward according to several analysts who have placed price targets as high as $550, though most are projecting an average price of $467. At its current trading price, Apple market value is hovering at $326 billion. A 32 percent increase into the upper $400s would push Apple's market value to $433.7 billion and propel it past Exxon Mobil, which currently has a market value of $423.2 billion. This continued climb has prompted some to question whether Apple is ripe for a stock split. The Cupertino company last split its stock in February 2005 when it was trading at $88.99 per share. Now that it is 690 percent higher than its 2005 level, some analysts are suggesting Apple may be ready to drop the price on its stock and let smaller investors into the fold. There are pros and cons to a split, not the least of which is Steve Jobs' desire to see the stock price climb higher. Apple won't comment on this possibility, officially stating "We have not announced any plans for a stock split." [Via Fortune]
HTC investing $40M in OnLive for smartphone gaming
"Yes, OnLive works on cell phones, too," the company's enterprising CEO Steve Perlman assured us all ... fifteen months ago. Did you forget? 'Cause HTC sure didn't. The smartphone manufacturing giant has unannounced plans to buy 5.3 million OnLive shares at $7.50 each -- that's about a $40 million stake in the cloud-based technology outfit -- to better position itself in the gaming segment of the smartphone market, reports The Wall Street Journal. Currently, HTC designs smartphones for both the Android and Windows Phone 7 platforms. HTC's investment would follow the reported $60 million raised by OnLive in 2010 through investments by British Telecommunications and Belgacom Group. During CES last month, OnLive also unveiled a partnership with Vizio to bring its games-on-demand service to a suite of products, including TVs and Blu-ray players.
Apple stock rises to over $342 intra-day
On a day where the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down by US$38.20 and the Nasdaq composite is nearly flat, once again, AAPL is bucking the trend and going straight up. At this writing, Apple stock is at $342.05, (a new intra-day high) and bouncing. So far the stock is up $5.93 or 1.76 percent on moderate volume. I'm sure that this is at least partially due to the anticipated Verizon (VZW) announcement tomorrow. Surprisingly enough, Verizon is about flat for the day, trading at $36.01 or up only $0.08 so far. If the Verizon announcement goes as we all hope, I can see this continuing, but who knows? So if you've got 'em, hold 'em.
Hedge fund using Twitter to predict stock prices, OK Cupid to meet girls
For some reason, we weren't surprised when Derwent Capital Markets announced plans to launch a hedge fund in February that will trade based on something called "Twitter sentiment," among other things. The science behind it comes from researchers at the University of Manchester and Indiana University, which maintains that there is a correlation between public mood and the Dow Jones industrial average. Apparently, a calm public seems to indicate that the Dow will go up, while an anxious public indicates that the Dow will go down. And according to Johan Bollen, an associate professor of informatics and computing at IU, Twitter posts can be analyzed and used to judge the public mood -- with a greater than 87 percent accuracy. Hit the source link to see him state his case.
Goldman Sachs resumes Apple coverage, targets AAPL at $430
Investing firm Goldman Sachs has decided to start covering Apple's stock profile, and that news sent the AAPL stock price up to $325.06 this morning, a nice boost from the day before. And that's not all -- not only did Goldman Sachs pull AAPL into its reporting fold, but it was about as bullish as you can get on a stock, saying through a spokesman that "we believe significant growth and profit opportunities for this platform still lie ahead." The company had been covering Apple previously, but when that special analyst left the firm, it took them a while to find a replacement. But it looks like they've found someone else they feel is qualified to make a prediction. The company predicts a $430 price target for AAPL, so if any of you happen to fall into some money over this coming holiday, you'll now know just where to put it. (Note: this is not actual financial advice, obviously, and there's no guarantee of success in the stock market.) Apple seems to be the success story that keeps on growing -- AAPL has hit a few all-time highs in 2010, and the forecast is pretty sunny all the way around.
Trion CEO introduces MMO investing to Bloomberg TV
Have you ever wondered where to invest your savings for the future? Have you thought about the MMO market? Apparently, multimedia companies like Time Warner, NBC Universal, and Bertelsmann believe it is worth their money. These three media giants have invested over $100 million into Trion Worlds, the top-tier gaming company featuring upcoming MMOs like Rift: Planes of Telara and End of Nations. Yesterday, Trion's CEO Lars Buttler was featured on Bloomberg's CEO Sitdown. In the interview, Buttler mentioned the role that games, specifically MMO games, will play in the future economy. "This is actually one of the fastest-growing segments of the games industry. And there are markets like Korea or China where you can see what a massive potential these online premium games already have," Buttler explains in the video. As MMOs become more mainstream, the media industry is beginning to see them as a viable form of entertainment. They are not just pretend fun for teenage boys anymore. Buttler expounds later, "It's really once-a-gamer-always-a-gamer, so as people get older they stay with their favorite game types." The industry is constantly growing because the audience sticks to its favorite form of entertainment. For more on this story check out the full video on Bloomberg's website.
Zynga estimated to be worth more than EA
We can't help but be kept awake at night, a constant state of worry hanging over our heads, wondering whether Zynga is financially surpassing the EAs and Activisions of the world. According to a Business Week report, it seems that Zynga recently did just that -- finally -- with SharesPost Inc. reporting Zynga's stock value at $5.51 billion, a full $290 million above EA's NASDAQ valuation of $5.22 billion. ThinkEquity LLC analyst Atul Bagga told BW that Zynga's valuation "is not that crazy, given what's going on in the market," noting that growth prospects over the next three years help add value to the still nascent social game company. Bagga estimates Zynga's virtual goods profits will rise from approximately $1.6 billion this year to $3.6 billion by 2013, making Zynga a riskier, but potentially more lucrative investment. That is, of course, if people keep buying ... whatever it is they buy in Facebook games.
Piper Jaffray raises Apple price target to $429
Piper Jaffray has raised the price target on shares of AAPL to US$429 following yesterday's financial report from Apple. The company posted its first $20 billion quarter, beating expected earnings. In addition, Piper Jaffray raised FY11 revenue growth rate from 24% to 32%. In a note to clients issued today, Jaffray said, "While shares of Apple may pull back today (10/19), we would be buyers based on our belief that investors will gain optimism over the next three months that the growth story will continue." Indeed there was a bit of a pullback, as AAPL dropped 5.6% in after-hours trading on Monday. The stock fell to $299.70, down $18.30 (-5.75%), within two hours of yesterday's announcements. The drop was blamed on iPad sales of 4.1 million; more were expected. For more Apple financial news, look here.
Blind user explains why he loves the iPhone
Here's a wild little story that made its way around the blogonets this past weekend -- it was originally posted in June, but it got recirculated on Twitter, and we first heard it from Steve Troughton-Smith. Austin Seraphin is a blind person, and he says that getting an iPhone changed his life forever -- he considers Apple's iDevice to be "the greatest thing to happen to the blind for a very long time, possibly ever." Really high praise, especially considering that we've heard both good and bad about the iPhone in terms of accessibility. Seraphin's story is a great read, so I just suggest you head over to his blog and check it out. But why does he appreciate the phone so much? Apple's VoiceOver feature is a big plus -- it allows people without sight to browse and control the iPhone's touch screen using audio feedback, reading off messages and even checking things like stocks and weather all by translating it through the speaker. Seraphin even describes using a color picking app to use the iPhone's camera to "see" colors around him, with VoiceOver reading off descriptive names of the colors coming through the lens. That's pretty incredible, and something only the iPhone, with its extremely mobile combination of technology and UI design, can easily make possible. Seraphin still has an issue using iTunes, and not all apps are, of course, quite as accessible as Apple's guidelines ask them to be. But it's awesome to hear how Apple's approach to technology, combined with all of the various apps out there, can make a significant change in this man's life. In fact, last week he got himself an iMac.
iPad: The missing apps
As we suspected back in March, the iPad shipped without apps that are standard on the iPhone: Stocks, Calculator, Clock, Weather, Voice Memos, and Compass. Instead of going without, we've found the best examples of each for you to install and get your iPad on par with your iPhone. Clock Our own Steve Sande pointed out several options for iPad owners, including Night Stand HD (US$4.99) and Clock Pro HD ($5.99). Go and check out the full article. In the meantime, click below to read the rest of our list.
Ford SYNC owners to get stock quotes, horoscopes and movie listings shouted at them
Hooray for voice command systems... that no one uses. Okay, so maybe someone uses 'em, but until voice recognition software improves drastically and / or our own memory banks swell dramatically, we still see most motorists reaching for buttons, toggles and wheels when it comes time to interact with their vehicle. That said, existing Ford owners with SYNC'd rides can soon do a lot more talking with their system thanks to a few complimentary updates hitting the Traffic, Directions & Information (TDI) sector. The cloud-based service will allow drivers to demand that a given stock quote, horoscope, movie time or travel inquiry be sorted and shouted, and just in case you glossed that last sentence over, we're going to reiterate once more that your SYNC system will now read back your horoscope. And guess what? These updates should be taking effect immediately, so feel free to make a mad dash for your garage and try 'er out.
AAPL passes Microsoft to reach 2nd on US market cap list
We expected it to happen eventually, but not quite this fast: Apple's market capitalization now exceeds that of longtime rival Microsoft. As of the 4pm ET market close today, Apple's total share value bests Microsoft's by nearly US$3 billion -- Apple stands at US$222.5 billion, while Microsoft is at US$219.53 billion. You may see some further fluctuation in aftermarket trading. This means that, at least in terms of market capitalization, the only US company worth more than Apple is Exxon, at US$278 billion. Apple surpassed Walmart's market cap last month, and Henry Blodget pointed out this morning that Apple was already ahead of Microsoft via the 'enterprise value' metric (accounting for the companies' relative amounts of cash and debt). Oddly, Apple's leapfrogging of Microsoft's market cap has had less to do with Apple's stock and more to do with Microsoft's; over the past 60 days or so, Apple's market cap has grown by less than US$10 billion, while Microsoft's has plummeted by almost $40 billion. No matter which way you look at it, though, Apple's surpassing of Microsoft's market cap is, just as the New York Times says, an absolutely stunning turnaround. Not bad for a company that was all but on its deathbed in the late 1990s.
Apple and Microsoft now neck and neck in market capitalization
Apple and Microsoft, together at last -- in terms of market capitalization, anyway. While that may have seemed inevitable to anyone that's been watching the markets lately, it's certainly nonetheless a significant milestone in the history between the two companies, and all the more striking if you look at a chart comparing the two companies over, say, the past five years (see for yourself after the break). As you can see above, however, Microsoft is still hanging onto a slight lead by one measure of market capitalization, but if you use another factoring in debt and other factors, Apple is now actually ahead of Microsoft in total value as of yesterday, and behind only Exxon Mobil among all US companies. No word on any celebrations breaking out in Cupertino just yet, but Apple will soon have a prime opportunity to do a bit of crowing should it choose to.
On Apple's $40 billion, and the question of dividends
AAPL has been hitting new highs just about every day. Yesterday the stock price hit an intra-day high of $230.20, a lofty height indeed. We pointed out earlier that Apple now has the fourth largest market cap of any publicly traded domestic company, so maybe it's time to revisit the question of Apple declaring dividends on its stock. Apple has not declared a dividend since December of 1995. After the last shareholder meeting, Steve Jobs stated that the money was best left in the bank so there would be no question of loans if something big was to be bought. "The cash in the bank gives us tremendous flexibility," explained Steve. The Motley Fool makes an interesting case in favor of dividends. Apple has no history of massive acquisitions, and keeping $40 billion around for just that reason sounds less than reasonable. A case is also made for keeping the money as preparation for the next big recession. This doesn't seem to hold much water, however, since analysts predict that Apple will grow by 18% per year for the next five years. That should provide more than enough cash, predicting that Apple will report net income of around $21 billion in 2014. Of course, predictions are often wrong, but Apple has been excellent when it comes to beating expected earnings numbers for some time. 77% of informal Motley Fool poll respondents think that Apple should declare dividends. After all, that cash is really owned by the stockholders and it seems that a good number of them would like to get some of it back. Read on for another view.
Nintendo stock rises following 3DS announcement
You may have been a bit bewildered by Nintendo's out-of-nowhere announcement of a new DS a week before the North American launch of the DSi XL, but one group seems to have no issues with the timing or technology of the Nintendo 3DS: investors. Marketwatch reports that Nintendo stock rose 9.7 percent yesterday in response to the hardware announcement. While it's hard to gauge exactly what it is about the 3DS that has inspired such confidence among investors, we would guess it's less about the current 3D trend and more about the fact that Nintendo announced a new thing, and Nintendo things have been good for stocks in the last five years or so.
Apple stock at another all-time high, market cap 4th in US
Apple's stock rose to another record high earlier today, reaching $228.36 at market close. That's almost another $10 above the record high it set back on March 5, which translates into nearly nine billion dollars in market capitalization gained in less than three weeks. Apple's market cap is so high that only three publicly-traded US companies have market caps higher than Apple's: Exxon, Microsoft, and a little retailer called Wal-Mart. Apple will probably never catch up to Exxon's market cap, which exceeds Apple's by more than $100 billion, and it has another $55 billion to go before it can surpass Microsoft -- not likely, but not impossible. Apple's market cap is within striking distance of Wal-Mart's, however, with only about $5.5 billion more to go before Apple surpasses the market value of the world's largest retailer.
Palm shares take 25 percent plunge after downer earnings announcement
Remember that wild January day a bit over a year ago, when Palm debuted webOS and shares went wild? Well, after months of setbacks in the sales arena, and a rough $22 million Q3 loss announced yesterday, Palm's stocks took over a 25 percent dive today, dipping below $5 for the first time since the Pre was announced. At the time of this writing things seem to be leveling off a bit, but it's the most damage the shares have seen since October of 2009. Morgan Joseph analyst Ilya Grozovsky has downgraded the stock to "sell" and set a target price at $0. Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek has set a similar target, saying that he sees a "complete lack of earnings visibility." So, candlelit vigil time? Imminent buyout? Riots in the streets? Hardly. Palm's own Jon Rubinstein said in the earnings announcement that the company is "looking forward to upcoming launches with new carrier partners" which should (hopefully) brighten spirits a bit, and we haven't heard a single credible buyout rumor, despite plenty of wild conjecture. There are also still a pair of analyst hold outs (just two, to be exact) that have buy ratings on the stock, reports Thomson Reuters. As for rioting? Well, that's up to you. No matter what, Palm has some serious soul searching to do.
No Apple stock split...for now.
Thursday, Briefings.com, CNBC and a passel of other market analysts predicted that a 4 for 1 stock split would be announced at the Apple Shareholder Meeting. This rumor moved the market, but there are conflicting opinions to why. First, for the uninitiated, a stock split is a zero sum game. One interpretation is that a firm considers its stock too highly priced for the average consumer and decides to split. For example, let's say that Apple is trading for $200 and you have one share. If a 4 for 1 stock split takes place, you will wind up 4 shares, instead of 1, but each share will be valued at $50. Did you gain or lose any money? No. It's all on paper. However, to those not familiar with the Buttonwood tree, and that's a lot of us, it sounds like 'quick buy Apple and you'll be getting 4 times as much'. The case for this sort of stupidity is well made by Barrons. Stock splits are nothing new to AAPL. They've split 2 for 1 three time in the past, in June 1987, June 2000 and February 2005. There are two general schools of thought on the reason behind stock splits, and they are total opposites. The first theory is that a company will split a stock if it is in trouble to allow lower dollar investors to buy their shares at half the price and thus incur less risk. The other school of thought is that a good company realizes their stock is just too expensive for the small trader who has some cash on the sidelines. It is meant to give the small guy an easier way to buy some stock without needing to commit the $200 for a share. Both sides have their points and, to an extent, both points are based on smoke and mirrors since they do not effect the worth of the company or the aggregate value of the stock by one penny.
