Bloomberg is reporting that Steve Jobs will not attend this week's Apple shareholder meeting. That's not a big surprise -- Jobs' health has kept him from attending recent usual events, including Macworld earlier this year. But it is the first time in the over 10 years since he rejoined the company that he won't be appearing at the annual meeting.

Additionally, at this week's meeting, as usual, shareholders will vote on whether or not to re-elect Apple's directors to their one-year terms, including Jobs, though nothing is expected to change -- the company has remained strongly in support of Jobs as leader, even if they haven't talked about his health as much as some investors may have liked. COO Tim Cook will likely run most of the planned activities during the meeting.

We'll keep an eye on any news that comes out of the closed meeting (streams and transcripts won't be available, but there will be reporters in attendance), and let you know what we hear. As always, we wish Jobs and his company and family the best of health, and hope he is able to feel better soon.

[via CNET]

While Apple stock is up over seven percent since its positive earnings report and conference call yesterday afternoon, both Nokia and Microsoft have released dourer reports about their financial outlook.

Microsoft said that it will lay off up to 5,000 people, about five percent of its workforce, over the next year and a half, according to the Seattle P-I. 1,400 of those jobs would be eliminated today. The news comes as the company announced earnings per share two cents less than their quarterly guidance -- 47 cents versus 49 cents -- on revenues of $16.63 billion. Analysts had expected revenues upwards of $17 billion.

Nokia today posted a 69 percent drop in profits for its last quarter. Nokia stock earned 15 euro-cent per share in profit, compared with 47 euro-cent in the same quarter last year. Sales fell 19 percent to €12.66 billion, missing forecasts of €13 billion.

What can we take away from this? Perhaps this is understating things, but Apple appears to be doing very well against its competitors. In yesterday's conference call, the company announced that it had grown sales and revenue even in the face of challenging worldwide economic conditions. In both retail and iPod sales, much of the growth was outside the United States. Apple sold 88 percent more iPhones than they did the same time last year, although much of that may be attributed to pent-up demand for the iPhone 3G.

At midday, AAPL is $10 higher than its record-low close on Tuesday, trading at around $88 per share. Both NOK and MSFT are trading down about $1.65 each.

[Via Daring Fireball.]

Update: Sony, too: It's posting a record annual loss of $3 billion, and plans to close factories and lay off workers.

Yesterday, Apple released a proxy statement detailing the financial compensation that executives enjoy as part of their participation on the board of directors.

Steve Jobs retained his $1 salary for 2008, but has over 5.5 million shares of Apple stock, which is worth over $500 million on paper. Jobs is worth about $5.7 billion, thanks largely to the fact that he's Disney's largest individual shareholder. Fidelity Investments continues to be Apple's largest investor with over 46 million shares of stock.

There are five shareholder proposals up for voting this time around:

• Proposal 1 asks to re-elect the board of directors, consisting of Steve Jobs, William Campbell, Millard Drexler, Al Gore, Andrea Jung, Arthur Levinson, Eric Schmidt, and Jerry York.
• Proposal 2 asks for more transparency surrounding Apple's political contributions.
• Proposal 3 asks the company to adopt a statement supporting universal health care for everyone, and not just employees.
• Proposal 4 asks the company to release a report on corporate strategies surrounding climate change and greenhouse gas emissions before July.
• Proposal 5 asks to adopt a policy that gives shareholders more input on executive compensation. (Thanks, Scott!)

The board of directors, perhaps not surprisingly, recommends approving the first proposal, and rejecting the other four.

The proxy statement is available from Apple's Investor Relations website, and will not be mailed to shareholders unless requested.

[Via MacDailyNews.]

AAPL fell 6.57 percent today after the Macworld announcements yesterday and a general retreat among tech-sector stocks. The company's stock closed at $89.16 per share, and over 42 million shares changed hands.

A lot of the selling was done last night in after-hours trading, with the stock opening the day's trading this morning around $91 a share.

In related news today, Oppenheimer Funds cut its rating on Apple stock from "outperform" to "perform," based largely on the fact that Jobs will not present the keynote speech at Macworld Expo next month.

Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner wrote a note to clients, saying "we don't know why Steve Jobs has pulled out of his annual address at Macworld [...] Whatever the reason, the unexpected announcement has underscored the greatest risk to Apple's long-term success -- its dependence on Jobs' health and its apparent lack of a succession plan."

AAPL has remained off its 52-week low of $79.14, which it recorded on November 21.

Morgan Stanley analysts yesterday cut AAPL's price target to $95, mostly citing the weak economy. They said that despite price cuts, extreme interest in the iPhone, Mac users' high satisfaction, and marketshare momentum for Mac sales, the quarter will be slow for Apple.

Blog Notable Calls said it wouldn't have been surprised if AAPL slipped by five points yesterday, but instead the stock gained 34 cents a share before the closing bell.

On a brighter note, Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu sees promise in iPhone gift cards, according to Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog. As with any gift card, Apple collects revenue from the customer up front. However, Apple can't report the revenue until the phone is activated, which will likely be during the first quarter of next year.

Wu anticipates Apple will sell 6 million iPhone handsets during the company's fiscal Q1 2009, which includes October, November and December 2008. Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Huberty thinks Apple will sell only 4 million that same quarter.

In the same Apple 2.0 story, Philip Elmer-DeWitt notes that Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster looked at how many units Walmart might sell, after pricing details leaked on Monday. He conjectures that each Walmart store could sell 1,284 iPhones in 2009, accounting for nearly 10 percent of Apple's worldwide iPhone sales.

AAPL was up by $2.50 or so in midday trading.

Apple met or beat analyst expectations for sales over the weekend, selling 13 Macs and 3.4 iPhones every hour, according to one Piper Jaffray estimate.

Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu said that Apple's Black Friday promotions helped drive retail store traffic, according to reports from distributors. Wu also noted that the iPod touch is sold out at Amazon.com, which leads him to believe that Apple could sell $10 billion worth of products this quarter.

Thomas Weisel Partners' Doug Reid got the impression that Apple sales were up from last year. He was less optimistic about Dell's retail performance at Best Buy locations, noting that salespeople there were not strongly recommending Dell models at 35 stores they checked.

Weisel analysts expect Apple to sell 2.4 million Macs during the fourth quarter.

Deutsche Bank analysts also conducted their own checks over the weekend, and found demand to be "solid," considering the current global economic woes. They expect Apple to sell 5 million iPhones this quarter, and reiterated their "buy" rating and price target of $150 per share.

AAPL was down slightly in morning trading.

Apple shares today dropped to an intra-day 52-week low of a penny over $75, and rebounded to close at $80.49 per share. That was down 5.8 points from yesterday's close.

This marks the lowest prices for Apple stock since the introduction of the iPhone in early 2007. Many stocks lost ground today in a broad market selloff that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average down nearly 445 points.

Marketwatch.com's Rex Crum says that AAPL has lost "the iPhone premium": That is, whatever gains the company made since the introduction of the popular handset. Apple shares hit a peak of almost $203 per share late last year, but those days are long gone.

If there's a silver lining to this gray cloud, it's that now might be a good time to buy. Macworld Expo is coming in January. In years past, the stock price has risen in anticipation of product announcements at the expo, leading to a selling frenzy the day of the keynote.

Of course, past performance does not necessarily indicate future results. In this market, who knows?

Shares of Apple stock closed higher today, among a widespread buying spree that pushed the Dow Industrials up a record-breaking 936 points.

AAPL closed at $110.26 per share, an increase of $13.46. Nearly 55 million shares changed hands.

Microsoft, Dell, Google, HP, Sun, and AT&T also posted double-digit percentage gains for the day.

Analyst firm Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Apple stock to "outperform" this morning, saying the company's short-term prognosis looks good, despite the dip in the market. Bernstein did, however, cut its price target by $50 to $135.

AAPL was up slightly in after-hours trading.

In a rollercoaster day on Wall Street, Apple shares closed up a scant $1.07 today, landing at $98.14, after a broad market sell-off this morning related to anxiety surrounding global financial markets.

AAPL once again hit a 52-week low of $87.54 per share around 10:45 Eastern this morning. However, shares regained momentum in a closing-bell rally, finishing up nearly half a percent.

Apple shares bucked the trend of many tech stocks today: Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, and AT&T all were less fortunate, losing between two and five percent of their value.

Shares were modestly higher in early after-hours trading.

Apple shares today reached their lowest price point since April 2007, closing at 97.07, down 3.03 points.

AAPL hit its 52-week low today, $94.65 per share, around 3:45 PM Eastern.

Early in the day, the stock was jarred with false rumors from CNN's iReport service about Steve Jobs suffering a heart attack. TUAW's own Michael Rose was among the first to contact Apple's PR VP, Katie Cotton, who said the rumors were untrue.

After the scare, prices rebounded, but never reached their highs for the day just before the rumor bubbled to the surface. Volume was at its heaviest before 10 a.m. Eastern, with about 16 million shares changing hands. In sum total, 82 million shares were traded over the course of the day.

Apple shares were slightly ahead in early after-hours trading.

Forget about iPods, for a moment. MacDailyNews reports that Apple sold a healthy 1.8 million Macs during the "holiday quarter" ending 2006 and of that number, about 1.1 million units were laptops. This apparently beat Apple's "already aggressive targets", with strong sales at the Apple store. Due to these strong sales Goldman Sachs estimates the fiscal 2007 per share earnings at $2.85, slightly higher than the "Street consensus" of $2.76.

Let's pause for a moment for a hearty fanboy squee at the news of Apple's further progress towards total world domination. And, oh yes, the iPod sold very nicely too.

MarketWatch is reporting that Apple's shares reached a 52-week high of $87.95 today, apparently fueled by furious rumors of - you guessed it - an iPhone. I'm sure the report that Hon Hai received a manufacturing order from Apple for just such a device isn't doing anything to stop people from losing their investing sense either. If the iPhone is really going to happen, the word on the street hasn't changed from "the first half of next year" yet, unless you consider this latest momument to craptastic journalism from AppleInsider about a second iChat-based iPhone already in the works (seriously guys: try drawing the line somewhere - for once).

As usual, you'll hear more as soon as we do.

[via MacMinute]

Macworld UK reports that Apple shares reached a new 52-week high. Between holiday iPod sales predictions and iPhone rumors, Apple stocks are performing strongly. Some analysts expect Apple to sell up to 15 million iPods during the Christmas sales season. That's (quickly doing math) a lot of iPods to shift out the door. Share prices were up $1.56 yesterday to $85.61. Apple's market capital stands at over $73 billion.

Eagle-eye reader Steve points out that both Yahoo and Google say the APPL high is actually 86.40.

Following reports of possible stock option improprieties by Apple executives and continuing internal and external investigations of these concerns, Apple has announced that it will delay the filing of its Q3 quarterly earnings reports until it is satisfied that the issues have been properly accounted for and addressed.

Delay of the filing puts Apple out of compliance with Nasdaq regulations, and continued non-compliance without taking proper measures are grounds for Nasdaq to cease listing of Apple shares.

Apple has said it's stock will remain listed pending a hearing and decision by the Nasdaq listing qualifications board.

Despite these issues, perhaps because Apple itself–and not a third party, uncovered the irregularities, Apple stock has remained fairly stable.

Well, it was bound to happen: Apple's stock, after years of joyously ascending in a fashion worthy of the New Testament, has finally reacquainted itself with the wonders of gravity and the venerable cliché, "What goes up must come down."

The share price fell over 5% today, closing at $67.30 -- a two-month low for the company whose stock was kicked out of Willy Wonka's factory for sneaking a sip -- or, as the situation would suggest, a chug -- of the infamous Fizzy Lifting Drink. Sources cite the recent surge of iPod/iTunes-related lawsuits, a fear that Intel Mac adoption would be slower than expected, and the belief that Apple's market value was just a teensy bit inflated as the reasons for the drop. But some analysts -- like our favorite Gene Munster -- say Wall Street's worries are unfounded, and believe Apple will keep its years-long momentum on track.

Personally, I just see this as an excellent buying opportunity. Apple will only sell more Macs and more iPods, despite what they say about expectations -- and aiming low but hitting high is always better than aiming high and shooting your foot.

[via MacObserver]