Profit-taking is always a good reason. There still seem to be a lot of day traders. They build things before the call and rip the heart out of the stock afterwards. They must celebrate their winnings after that.
Of course, when the crude oil was dropping in price yesterday, most stocks were up and Apple's was down. They rarely go with the crowd on anything.
Glad they're healthy, though.
A perfect example of this mentality was seen on CNBC's Fast Money show today. 3 of the 4 panelists recommended immediately selling Apple. It quite possibly could have been all four, but the fourth was not allowed to speak.
Their reasons:
Won't be any more good news for a month or so.
The only news that could possibly come out would be bad, referring to options backdating.
Claimed that iPod inventory increased from 2-4 weeks to 4-6 weeks.
Claimed that Macintosh sales were disappointing. Even though there were 2 fewer weeks this quarter...
A note about the third point. I listened to the conference call which specifically addressed this. The fool panelist apparently either has ADD or poor listening skills. What was explained was that while there was an increase in inventory, this was experienced early in the quarter and with respect to the prior quarter. It was clearly stated that if one were to look at current levels, it would be closer to 1-2 weeks. This is further elaborated (the analyst actually asking the question also could not understand what was being said) by the explanation that Apple pre-loaded inventory in anticipation of heavy Christmas sales. In other words, Apple loaded up early on iPods and worked through the inventory.
It was clearly stated that if one were to look today, inventory levels would be quite low.
I do give the idiots on this panel somewhat of a pass as they are clearly pump and dump kinds of traders. They latch on to whatever sector happens to have momentum and sell when they get their few ticks of profit. Actually this is what the show is all about.
Further illustration: they were banging the table and screaming at the top of their lungs that Apple was a buy buy buy exactly one week ago, after the announcement of the iPhone. They said ignore options backdating, it's a non-issue. They also said that Apple is fair at 97 and all 4 called it a buy.
Amazing how Apple, after reporting blowout numbers, went from a screaming buy to a "get out while you still can" stock.
I'd say this was an example of making a quick buck, but considering the underlying faulty analysis, one has to wonder.
However, it does show that any fool can make money in stocks if you throw enough darts.
It also shows that CNBC's shows are all about entertainment, not providing sound investment advice. I suppose that since they lost the Blodgets of the world, they decided to in-source the spurious analysis.
