US stocks were trading sharply higher Monday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average recently gained 159 points to 12747, the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index jumped 21 points to 1380 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 48 points to 2901.

Prior to this, Apples stock had been on a two month long decline, which culminated in the stock falling to a six month low on Thursday and the companys market cap falling below $500 billion.

Apple Inc, the largest US stock by market value, was headed toward its eighth straight week of declines on Friday, as the rush to secure profits before a potential hike in capital gains taxes next year has investors dumping the market favorite.

The stock began to slip in late September as investors began to worry about supply constraints after the company reported lower than expected iPhone 5 sales.

The decline has been further exacerbated in recent weeks by several factors, including news of an executive shakeup, a lower than expected profit margin for the December quarter and reports that Apples share of the tablet market has declined significantly not to mention general instability in the stock market from the US election and European debt crisis.

When any stock, not only HTC, rises strongly for days or trades under an unusually high volume, we will analyse and look into what is going on,” Michael Lin, senior executive vice president of Taiwan Stock Exchange, said Tuesday.. Another executive at the stock exchange, who asked not to be named, told The Wall Street Journal the exchange hasn’t received complaints from investors regarding HTC’s rally last week.. Both executives declined to give more details, including when the investigation would be concluded.. In response to the investigation, HTC said: “There is a strict confidentiality requirement in this agreement.

At the end of last week, some were saying there was no bottom in sight for the stock, but this week two analysts expressed renewed confidence in the stock, which appears to have helped turn it around.

Brian White, an analyst with Topeka Capital Markets, wrote in a research note that the sell off of Apple stock has gotten to the point of being insanely insane given the depressed valuation, new blockbuster products for the holiday season, the attractive long term growth opportunities that lie ahead and the Companys ability to distribute significant cash flow to investors.

Scott Craig, an analyst with Merrill Lynch, lowered his price target on Apple to $780 a share from $840 previously, but noted that he remains positive about the stock.

Although we do not expect these uncertainties to alleviate near term, we remain positive on current product cycles and believe the stock offers a very attractive balance of growth and value, Craig said in a research note, via Fortune.

(Credit:Apple)Recently appointed Apple hardware chief Dan Riccio sold off nearly $11 million in company stock this week.

The sales, which took place yesterday and today and were detailed in a regulatory filing, included 19,726 shares, with another 1,000 that are given away as a charitable donation.

Steve Dowling, Apple’s director of corporate communication, told Fast Company that Mansfield is positioned at the same level as Ive, Eddy Cue, and Craig Federighi in the new structure: “He’s right there on the executive team…They’re all senior vice presidents.”.

And while many folks are understandably now focused on Jony Ive’s sparkling design pedigree, there’s another Apple vet to keep an eye on: Bob Mansfield.

Famous ex Appler Matt Drance noted in a post that he saw the new “regime change” as “a profound change in Apple’s organization going as far back as we can remember. There’s a long standing pattern of separating watershed products important to the company’s future. The Mac and Apple teams. Mac OS X and Classic. The iPod division. iOS and Mac OS X.”.

Despite closing up from its opening price today, the company’s stock price has been on the decline over the past two months, bringing Apple’s still record market capitalization down with it.

Apple’s share price topped $705 in September, and closed today at $527.68.

Apples Scott Forstall is one of two top executives leaving the company.

Do you want to know when Apple insiders will purchase their shares.

Might today’s decline be attributable to Apple’s announcement Monday of the departure of two senior executives — Scott Forstall and John Browett.

With the approximate $100 per share pullback in Apple Inc (AAPL) shares, we decided to examine the company to determine if an opportunity exists for some speculative profits.

In addition, today’s decline seems to fall in line with previous single day drops.

So, it’s possible the drop is as much a part of a negative trend as it is a reaction to the executive departures.

Eddy Cue: The godfather of iTunesSiri now gives Chinese prostitutes the cold shoulder — reportiPhone 5 comes one step closer to China release Still, Apple may have been concerned about Wall Street’s reaction to the news about Forstall and Browett, which came while trading was canceled because of Hurricane Sandy.

Supply and demand in stock markets are driven by various factors that, as in all free markets, affect the price of stocks .

The loss of Forstall could worry investors who see him as a key ingredient in the development of Apple’s iOS platform.

According to reports, he was ousted because of his unwillingness to sign a letter apologizing for problems with Apple’s Maps application.

Apple’s ousted retail chief John Browett was let go for unrelated reasons.

For its part, Apple has tried to allay fears, saying that its current executive team, including Jonathan Ive and Eddy Cue, will pick up the slack.

Apple remains the most valuable public company in the world, by a wide margin, with a total market capitalization of $556 billion.

What’s a bit surprising is the beating management, Facebook’s business model, and its image continue to endure.

Facebook (FB) may have fashioned itself as an anti Wall Street, Silicon Valley upstart, but that didn’t stop a top executive from meeting with the ultimate Wall Street insider for advice following the company’s disastrous initial public offering, the FOX Business Network has learned.

Barrons writer Andrew Bary explains that Facebook needs to completely change its business model in order to stay relevant.

Facebook didn’t exist,” Hower notes. “We created a unique business model that was suited to a product that we built.

That would be roughly 24 times projected 2013 profit and six times estimated 2013 revenue of $6 billion, still no bargain price.

It’s not so much that Google has out innovated Facebook as it is that the social engine giant has made the social network largely irrelevant.

It notes as well that lockup expirations could greatly affect the stock in the coming months.

In the article, investors and analysts openly criticize Facebooks current revenue, stock based compensations for employees and operating costs.

Evidently it is going to take some time before Facebook and these new publicly traded companies can compete fiercely with established advertising giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple.

It goes so far as to suggest Facebook implement a paid subscription model.

Its fascinating to watch folks so clueless about social media opine so openly, but profits are profits to these folks, and if theres none to be seen, the investors get edgy.

In this article, we will take a look at Facebook’s business model as compared to its competitors and its future growth prospects.

The article doesnt break any news about the company, rather it sums up all the negative points that Wall Street has been discussing since Facebooks May Initial public offering, in a way that seems to have struck a chord with Wall Street.

Facebook (FB) may have fashioned itself as an anti Wall Street, Silicon Valley upstart, but that didn’t stop a top executive from meeting with the ultimate Wall Street insider for advice following the company’s disastrous initial public offering, the FOX Business Network has learned.

Barrons writer Andrew Bary explains that Facebook needs to completely change its business model in order to stay relevant.

What’s a bit surprising is the beating management, Facebook’s business model, and its image continue to endure.

That would be roughly 24 times projected 2013 profit and six times estimated 2013 revenue of $6 billion, still no bargain price.

Twitter is more similar to Facebook, although its follower approach makes it a quasi social network.

It notes as well that lockup expirations could greatly affect the stock in the coming months.

In the article, investors and analysts openly criticize Facebooks current revenue, stock based compensations for employees and operating costs.

Evidently it is going to take some time before Facebook and these new publicly traded companies can compete fiercely with established advertising giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple.

It goes so far as to suggest Facebook implement a paid subscription model.

Its fascinating to watch folks so clueless about social media opine so openly, but profits are profits to these folks, and if theres none to be seen, the investors get edgy.

People queue to buy Apple’s new iPhone 5 from their flagship store in Sydney as Australia becomes one of the first countries in the world to offer the phone for sale, on September 21, 2012.

Apple (AAPL) sold five million iPhone 5s in just three days after the launch.

  iPhone was available only in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the U.

And the US  Apple will release iPhone 5 in 22 more countries on September 28.

Anecdotal evidence shows that the initial demand for iPhone 5 exceeded the supply available, with total sales so far exceeding what the iPhone 4S sold in its entire first month.

  The only fly in the ointment is that some analysts were projecting around 10 million iPhone 5 sales in this period.

  we received emails projecting as many as 15 million iPhone 5 sales.

  In the prevailing bullish environment relating to Apple stock, being bearish on Apple is career suicide.

  The evidence is the conspiracy theories being advanced by the newly converted cultists.

  The theory goes that Apple analysts conspired to ratchet up iPhone 5 estimates knowing well that Apple would not meet their estimates and the stock would go down.

The cultists’ belief is that analysts were simply conspiring in this scheme to drive down the price of Apple stock so that they could help their clients buy at lower prices.

The other conspiracy theory making the rounds is that Apple is deliberately trying to give an impression of scarcity of iPhone 5.

Stocks on Wall Street finished flat after the market opened slightly higher and moved in a very narrow range for most of the session.

Investors are looking to next week’s economic calendar features reports on manufacturing, housing prices, new home sales, jobless claims, durable goods orders, and consumer confidence.

European markets were up on reports that indicated Spain is weighing more aggressive reform measures in anticipation of a bailout deal.

COMPANY NEWS: Apples (AAPL) iPhone 5 launch was greeted by long lines at Apple, AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ), and Sprint (S) stores around the world.

Research in Motion (RIMM) dealt with an interruption of BlackBerry service in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, while the stock fell 45c, or 6.52%, to close $6.45 on increased competition from iPhone.

MAJOR MOVERS: Among the risers were shares of KB Home (KBH), up $2.13, or 16.25%, to close at $15.24 after a positive earnings report.

The FDA provided positive guidance enabling ViroPharma (VPHM) to resume clinical studies of the drug Cinryze, moving the companys shares up $2.13, or 7.56%, to $30.31 and bringing with it shares of Halozyme Therapeutics (HALO) which climbed $1.54, or 24.02%, to $7.95.

Stocks falling on the day included Vivus (VVUS), which fell $2.72, or 11.47%, to $21.00, after news that a European committee would likely recommend the companys anti obesity drug Qsiva not be approved.

That puts the shares of most IPOs under pressure and usually causes the share price to fall.

When a stock price moves up or down, watching the volume is a good way of identifying how significant that shift is.

Because this cash hoard is not earning a return, it’s fair to cut it out of the stock price to make the P/E ratio a pure view of the underlying business.

The P/E ratio can be seen as being expressed in years, in the sense that it shows the number of years of earnings which would be required to pay back the purchase price, ignoring inflation, earnings growth and the time value of money.

The most popular yardstick is the price/earnings ratio, widely used by both amateur and professional investors.

The lower the ratio, the more the company is burdened by debt expense, the higher the ratio the better.

SEE: How To Find P/E And PEG Ratios At $34.11, AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE:AU) has slipped 0.8%.

At 291,997 shares, the company’s volume so far today is 0.2 times its current daily average.

And yet, the new shares give investors no control over what happens to the company.

When a stock price moves up or down, watching the volume is a good way of identifying how significant that shift is.

Generally, a firm that can expand its net profit margins over a period of time will see its stock price rise as well due to the trend of increasing profitability.

Investment valuation ratios provide investors with an estimation, albeit a simplistic one, of the value of a stock.

The commonly drawn upon P/E Ratio and EV/EBITDA multiple are prime examples of tools that can mislead investors by making investments appear more or less attractive than they actually are.

The price to earnings ratio is widely used valuation multiple used for measuring the relative valuation of companies: a higher P/E ratio means that investors are paying more for each unit of net income, so the stock is more expensive compared to one with a lower P/E ratio.

General Motors, for example, sells for six times earnings but only three times cash flow, because it has lots of depreciation charges.

However, we screened the investment category Dividend Aristocrats (stocks with more than 25 years in consecutive dividend hikes, selected by Standard & Poors) by companies with low debt to equity ratios of less than 0.3.

Silver Standard Resources Inc (Nasdaq:SSRI) has fallen 0.7% and is currently trading at $13.73 per share.

A wide array of ratios can be used by investors to estimate the attractiveness of a potential or existing investment and get an idea of its valuation.

By using this ratio, investors can identify the amount of leverage utilized by a specific company and compare it to others to help analyze the company’s risk exposure.

The analysis also reveals the company has had some weaknesses in its debt ratios, mainly the interest coverage ratio.

At the end of this offering, the company will have 163 million shares outstanding, but it is authorized to issue another 486 million shares.

Investment valuation ratios can be very useful in estimating whether a stock price is too high, reasonable or a bargain investment opportunity.

Its been six years since we wrote a column about stocks that look cheap based on their price to cash flow ratio.

Used along with other measures of financial health, the total debt to total assets ratio can help investors determine a company’s level of risk.

The higher the percentage ratio, the better the company’s ability to carry its total debt.

In order to exclude the risks of low capitalized companies, we decided to screen only such stocks with a market capitalization above USD 300 million.

It is important to weigh current activity against historical performance when making any investment decisions.

Tools like valuation ratios and profit margins, however, are only as useful as the context you put them in; remember to take historical data and competitor performance into account.

NEW YORK: Apple on Monday dethroned longtime rival Microsoft as the most valuable company in history based on the value of its stock, which climbed to around $623.51 billion.

While share prices at Facebook flounder, Apples share price rose to $664.74, which put the companys total worth at $623.1 billion, just ahead of Microsoft Corp.s record of $620.6 billion, Financial Times reported.

Shares of Apple stock hit a record high on Monday morning as excitement builds up for the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini.

Apple topped the record of nearly $619 billion set by software titan Microsoft in 1999, during the famed dot com boom years.

The record set today will continue to add positive sentiment to the stock, especially as we get closer to the end of the year, said Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael James.

Apple shares began a rapid ascent on Friday after Jefferies investment bank analyst Peter Misek predicted the stock will hit $900 and predicted that the arrival of the iPhone 5 will be the biggest handset launch in history.

The rumored iPhone 5 release date is getting closer, and as investors anticipate the devices launch, Apples stock continues to soar.

Jefferies reasoned that Apple is positioned to take a significant portion of the profit to be generated by hot trends in smartphones, tablet computers, and gadgets linking to the Internet on latest generation 4G networks.

The Internet has been abuzz with unconfirmed reports that Apple will introduce a new iPhone, perhaps with a larger screen, at a press event in September.

The iPhone and iPad maker surpassed$600 billion in market value last week on speculation thatproduction has started on a smaller version of the iPad tabletas well as a new television product.

Despite its bright prospects, however, the bulk of the gains in Apple’s stock price has come in the last four years.

Expectations that there is going to be an upcoming products cycle with iPad mini, the new iPhone, and further penetration into China; all of these have people expecting good things to come in the short term from Apple, James said.

Investors also see promise in hot new Apple gadgets hitting the market in time for year end holiday shopping, when the companys products typically shine.

US President Barack Obama steps off Air Force One at JFK Airport in New York, August 6, 2012.

At 1,400, the S&P 500 on Friday was closing in on a four year high and was up 74 percent since January 20, 2009, the day Obama took office.

That rally might be just enough to get Obama re elected, making him the first sitting president in the post war era to win a second term with a jobless rate higher than 7.2 percent.

“Even though business and corporate sentiment is not good for Obama because they don’t think he’s been good for the economy, the fact that the market has done very well under him is a positive,” said Ethan Siegal, head of The Washington Exchange, which analyzes politics for institutional investors.

Soon after taking office, the president even waded into the dangerous territory of stock market prognostication.

On March 3, 2009, Obama, responding to a question about a market that was plumbing 12 year lows, said: “What you’re now seeing is profit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal, if you’ve got a long term perspective on it.”.

Three years on, US stocks have more than doubled, adding $6.8 trillion in market capitalization.

“The stock market is a barometer not of the absolute level of the economy but of improvement in the economy,” said former Merrill Lynch strategist Richard Bernstein, who now runs his own investment management firm.

Conventional wisdom has it that a stock market rally is good news for a sitting president, and it often has been.

But not all rallies are the same, and the lack of a concurrent boost in home values, along with the weak job market, may mean the gains over the last three years don’t have the same benefit for Obama.

Tom Wales, director of North America analysis at Oxford Analytica, noted that most Americans who hold stocks do so in their 401(K) retirement accounts, and “if you’re worried about your job, about your mortgage being underwater, then the fact that your 401(K) looks less bare is not that reassuring.”.

NO WEALTH EFFECT
Polls in recent days have shown Obama widening his slim lead over Republian Mitt Romney even though voters say they are worried about the economy and the country’s direction.

Online betting site Intrade had the president’s reelection chances at 59 percent, against 38 percent for Romney.

A 2012 study by the Socionomics Institute in Atlanta found that the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the three years preceding election day was a better predictor of results than overall growth, unemployment or inflation.

A gain of 20 percent or more in the Dow all but assured victory for an incumbent, while a fall of 10 percent or more meant the president should start brushing up on his golf game.

Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton presided over respective gains of 25 percent and 35 percent.

“Research on annual price performance dating back to 1944 shows a link between the performance of the stock market and factors such as the likelihood the incumbent will be reelected,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist for Standard & Poor’s Equity Research Services.

But in the 1990s, for instance, stocks rose amid an economic boom that boosted job growth and home prices, which made everyone feel richer.

While record low interest rates and cheap financing from the Federal Reserve have helped push up stocks, they have done little to ease the blow of a housing collapse or encourage firms to go on a hiring spree.

A slow growing economy with nearly 13 million Americans out of work means “nobody is feeling flush just because we’ve had a market rally,” said Sean West, who heads US analysis at The Eurasia Group, a consultancy that analyzes political developments for companies and investors.

“Even if you’re doing well now, who knows where you’ll be in six months? In such a high volatility environment, it’s hard to feel good.”.

Bush’s re election attempt in 1992, even though the S&P rose 46 percent over his term in office.

Added David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management: “we suspect if you stopped 20 people on the street and asked how much the value of their 401(K) had gone up in the last three years, their answers wouldn’t come close. So even though the S&P has more than doubled from its low point in (March) 2009, most Americans are unaware of that.”.

POSITIVE SOCIAL MOOD
Even so, Robert Prechter, president of Elliott Wave International and one of the authors of the Socionomic Institute study, says the stock market has such a strong predictive record because it is usually the best indicator of voters’ mood.

“No specific election outcome is ever assured, but we can say that social mood has become much more positive during Mr Obama’s tenure as president,” he said, adding, “We are skeptical that the ‘wealth effect’ matters as much as voters’ mood.
“Even though the economy remains weak, the three year trend toward more positive social mood should have made voters less inclined to express bad feelings toward the president,” he said.
Indeed, the latest Reuters/IPSOS poll showed registered voters were still rated Obama higher than Romney when it comes to jobs, the economy and tax issues.
John Manley, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management, said Obama also wins points for acting swiftly in the early days of his presidency to prevent a deep recession from becoming a full fledged depression. “That quite rightly gives him credit for a decent run in the stock market,” he said.
Of course, personalities and political skills matter, too.
Obama campaign attacks on Romney’s record as a private equity executive at Bain Capital and his job creating credentials have been effective, Eurasia’s West said.
That’s not to say a big swing in the market between now and November couldn’t shake things up.
“If Europe’s debt crisis were to worsen, for instance, and it knocked 100 points off the market in a day, making Obama look weak and ineffective, he loses,” West said.
“But unless you see the stock market break out one way or the other, it comes down to who can craft a better story about economic performance.