Reason why Apple shares prices down Stock Market Today Shares, gold , mortgage rates

Reason why Apple shares prices down : During midday trading on Wednesday, 17 April, Apple's share price fell to $398.81 (£261.54), down 6.4 percent since opening on the NASDAQ at $426.24 that morning. It marks a 16-month low for the company which in September, 2012, saw its stock price peak at over $700 just prior to the launch of the iPhone 5.

The price slump may be related to iPhone and iPad chip manufacturer Cirrus Logic, which today posted its financial guidance for the first-quarter. Forecasting Q1 revenue of between $150m and $170m, Cirrus Logic's results came in behind the $195m of revenue expected by Wall Street analysts, leading to speculation that demand for the iPad and iPhone may be slowing.

Foxconn, another manufacturer of Apple products, has also published disappointing financial results lately. The Taiwanese company, which earns between 60 and 70 percent of its business from building Apple products, posted first quarter sales of T$808.97 billion (£17.6bn), down from T$988.34bn in the previous quarter and T$1 trillion from the same period in 2012.

"A quarterly decline was expected, but not a yearly decline," KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo told Reuters. "This shows that Hon Hai's revenue depends too much on Apple, and iPhone orders corrected more than expected."

Despite the lower than expected results, Foxconn has since confirmed that it has been hiring thousands of new staff since the end of March, feeding speculation that the company may be preparing for the production of a new iPhone.

Despite slipping to $398.81, Apple's share price quickly jumped back over $400 and at time of writing sits at $403.90. The company will announce its second quarter financial results on 23

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was supposed to be the best stock in the world. It was always at the top of the list for stocks to buy and almost nobody would say to sell Apple stock. Its share price was supposed to go to the moon as analyst after analyst on Wall Street kept raising their price targets to $600, then $800, then even $1,000. After briefly hitting $700 in 2012, the Apple stock price has now broken under the $400 barrier briefly on Wednesday for the first time since late in 2011.

Apple’s weakness is along with a weak stock market today, but the weakness from Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) added to some concerns today. We would also note that Bernstein just said earlier this week that Apple may not actually announce its cash plans along with earnings. The report also showed that Apple may take on debt to avoid paying the taxes for the cash that is held outside of the United States.

We would note that estimates and expectations have been coming down steadily since the start of this year. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $613.53 for Apple. Thomson Reuters has a consensus estimate of $10.13 in earnings per share as of last look, but this has dropped. a week ago the estimate was a penny higher at $10.14 EPS. Then it was $10.18 30 days ago, $10.24 just 60 days ago, and $11.86 back 90 days ago. We would like to ask: Does a new $99.99 iPhone cheapen the brand of Apple?

Apple shares are down 5.2% at $403.80 and the stock hit a new 52-week low of $398.11. The 52-week high is $705.07, but Apple’s market cap is now back down to about $378 billion.