iPad Mini fails to boost Apple stock
It was a lousy day in the stock market, and not even an Apple product-unveiling was enough to escape the Dow's gravitational pull.
Not even Apple could escape unscathed on a day when the stock market got gob-smacked by fresh worries out of Europe and disappointing earnings news at home.
See CNET's full coverage of Apple's iPad Mini eventAfter staging an early afternoon rally that brought its shares close to breakeven, Apple's stock fell back -- with the rest of the market -- down more than 3 percent for the day to finish at $613.39. What do you want? It was a lousy day in the stock market, with the market finishing down nearly 243 points, and not even Apple could escape the Dow's gravitational pull -- though not for lack of trying. After dropping to as low as $615.91, Apple's shares came back, mounting a steady early climb after CEO Tim Cook took the stage today to kick off the company's long-awaited iPad Mini announcement.
But any investors betting on a surprise announcement came away disappointed, and it was buy the rumor, sell the news. Much of what got announced had been expected. The one unexpected announcement came in the form of the fourth-generation iPad.
One other possible explanation for the sell-off came in a research note authored by Piper Jaffrey's Gene Munster. Looking at Apple's announcement of iPad sales data, Munster said it "implies [the] iPad may have been weaker than expected in September" and concluded that the data would suggest approximately 15 million units in September compared with his prior estimate of 18.5 million units.
Apple announced that it had sold its 100 millionth iPad "a couple of weeks ago," suggesting it occurred in the first 10 days of October. Given that Apple sold 84.1m iPads through June, we believe this implies a Sept iPad number around 15m units compared to our 18.5m. As with the iPhone 5 launch, we believe the iPad Mini was widely expected by consumers and they may have delayed iPad purchases in anticipation of the new product. We are lowering our September quarter iPad estimate to 15m to account for the new data but remain confident that the iPad lineup is stronger than ever and will see a rebound in the holiday quarter, and we retain our 25m unit estimate for December.