After close of trading on 21st January, Microsoft announced it was going to cut up to 5,000 jobs in the light of an 11 percent drop in profits.
The next day there was a high volume of trading in Microsoft's shares - and not the good kind - as prices ended the day nearly 12 percent down on the previous day.
The negative sentiment towards Microsoft (and let's not forget, it still managed to make over $4 billion profit) could have been exacerbated by the fact that two of its principle competitors: Apple and Google, both exceeded expectations with their quarterly earnings.
The impression created is that of Microsoft's grip on the markets it has dominated for so long looking increasingly shaky, as it tries to adapt to the new realities of the web dominated world. The continued attentions of the European Commission will only have reinforced that impression.
It was another bad week for AMD shares, after the chip maker announced another quarter of big losses, exaggerated by the need to keep writing down the value of its acquisition of ATI.
Having said that, AMD's shares actually gained a little last Friday, when the earnings announcement was made. This is probably because the figures were already priced in after AMD announced yet another round of job cuts on Friday 16th January.
US markets were closed last Monday for Martin Luther King Day, but when they re-opened on the Tuesday AMD's shares dropped by over 12 percent.
Company | Listing | Share price 5/1/09 | Share price 12/1/09 | Share price 19/1/09 | Share price 26/1/09 | 7-day change | Market cap (bn) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AMD | AMD | 2.38 | 2.69 | 2.29 | 2.07 | -9.6% | 1.26 |
Apple | AAPL | 90.75 | 90.58 | 82.33 | 88.36 | 7.3% | 78.68 |
Avnet | AVT | 18.98 | 17.45 | 17.96 | 18.68 | 4.0% | 2.81 |
Dell | DELL | 10.75 | 11.12 | 10.27 | 10.14 | -1.3% | 19.72 |
GOOG | 321.32 | 315.07 | 299.67 | 324.70 | 8.4% | 102.20 | |
HP | HPQ | 36.81 | 37.49 | 34.77 | 35.79 | 2.9% | 86.16 |
IBM | IBM | 87.37 | 84.70 | 84.92 | 89.49 | 5.4% | 120.23 |
Ingram Micro | IM | 13.98 | 13.22 | 13.50 | 13.19 | -2.3% | 2.17 |
Intel | INTC | 15.20 | 14.15 | 13.74 | 13.12 | -4.5% | 72.97 |
Microsoft | MSFT | 20.33 | 19.52 | 19.71 | 17.20 | -12.7% | 152.92 |
Nvidia | NVDA | 8.71 | 7.93 | 7.99 | 7.71 | -3.5% | 4.14 |
Tech Data | TECD | 18.80 | 19.15 | 19.41 | 19.04 | -1.9% | 0.95 |
Yahoo | YHOO | 12.85 | 13.13 | 11.59 | 11.32 | -2.3% | 15.69 |
Dow | .DJI | 9034.69 | 8599.18 | 8281.22 | 8077.56 | -2.5% | N/A |
FTSE 100 | .FTSE | 4561.79 | 4448.54 | 4147.06 | 4052.47 | -2.3% | N/A |
NASDAQ | .IXIC | 1632.21 | 1571.59 | 1529.33 | 1477.29 | -3.4% | N/A |