stocks

Apple shares dip below $600, then bounce back

Apple shares, which just a month ago hit a record high of $702, today dipped briefly below $600.

The stock, which opened at $609.43, started falling about an hour later, eventually dropping to a low of $591 shortly after 9 a.m. PT. The shares subsequently rallied and crossed back above the $600 line a little over an hour later.

Apple reported mixed earnings yesterday, beating expectations for revenue but falling short on profits. Sales of iPhones came in slightly above Wall Street estimates, although iPad sales disappointed.

The company also issued muted expectations for the current quarter, saying … Read more

Mark Zuckerberg's $2 billion day

Facebook's beaten down stock soared today, posting its biggest one-day gain since going public and boosting its CEO Mark Zuckerberg net wealth by a cool $2 billion. Shares closed up $19.13 percent to close at $23.23 after Facebook yesterday posted solid quarterly earnings and showed that it's on its way to making big money from mobile.

The rare rally came as Zuckerberg spent much of yesterday's conference call convincing Wall Street analysts that mobile is not a problem but a monstrous opportunity that he is tackling with full force.

It's only a one-day bump, … Read more

Ka-ching! Mobile ads cranking $1.1B a year for Facebook

Facebook's stock is on a tear today, poised to post its biggest one day gain since it went public in May. This comes a day after the company's strong third-quarter earnings report and, perhaps more importantly, its upbeat call with analysts in which CEO Mark Zuckerberg said flat out, "I want to dispel this myth that Facebook can't make money on mobile."

While Zuckerberg and his top execs stressed that Facebook is in the early days on this front -- it only started trying to make money from mobile in March -- they did share … Read more

As Zynga falters, so does Facebook

Players are spending 20 percent less on Zynga games, which means Facebook is receiving less money from those games as well.

"Overall, gaming on Facebook isn't doing as well as I'd like," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the company's third-quarter earnings conference call today. He said the rest of Facebook's gaming network has been growing -- monthly payments revenue from other games has increased by 40 percent since last year -- but Zynga's numbers have fallen.

Zynga's payment revenue has gone down 20 percent since last year's third-quarter earnings, Facebook'… Read more

iPad Mini fails to boost Apple stock

Not even Apple could escape unscathed on a day when the stock market got gob-smacked by fresh worries out of Europe and disappointing earnings news at home.

See CNET's full coverage of Apple's iPad Mini event After staging an early afternoon rally that brought its shares close to breakeven, Apple's stock fell back -- with the rest of the market -- down more than 3 percent for the day to finish at $613.39. What do you want? It was a lousy day in the stock market, with the market finishing down nearly 243 points, and not … Read more

SEC finds Facebook didn't hold back info from investors -- report

The Securities and Exchange Commission didn't find any evidence that Facebook withheld pertinent information from investors prior to its initial public offering, Bloomberg reported today.

The commission began investigating the social network's initial public offering, or IPO, in May, after Facebook's stock dropped. The stock still hasn't recovered from that day, and is currently trading at around half of its $38 IPO price.

While the investigation isn't over, the commission has determined that Facebook did not act wrongly, an unnamed source told Bloomberg. The SEC is still looking at whether or not retail investors lost … Read more

Why Google got slammed for its earnings

Google shares are tanking, and it's not because the company's third-quarter results hit early.

Sure, that's a pretty big no-no, but what's really upsetting investors is the numbers themselves. Results were pretty lackluster across the board, and Motorola can't be blamed for all of it.

Here's what's spooking investors:

The stock has been on a tear First of all, keep in mind that Google's stock has been on a tear as of late, rising more than 30 percent this summer before hitting a record $774.38 earlier this month. That prompted a … Read more

Analyst reports send Netflix's stock on a seesaw ride

Analysts are having some difficulty getting a clear picture of Netflix's streaming future -- and its stock is paying the price.

Shares in the Web video-rental service fell 8 percent to $67. 75 in morning trading after Merrill Lynch/BofA downgraded the stock. Yesterday, Netflix closed up 10 percent after Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt raised his rating and boosted his price target to $85.

Last Wednesday, Mark Mahaney, a Citigroup analyst also helped send the stock price up when he called Netflix a "screaming buy." The upgrades were based in part on the belief that Amazon … Read more

Apple shares slump ahead of iPad Mini reveal

Last update: 2:19 p.m. PT -- added Apple's closing price.

Apple shares are down nearly 10 percent since hitting an all-time high of $705 last month, prompting a flurry of explanations, including one conspiracy theory, for the stock retreat ahead of a brand-new product.

The recent slide, which started in the middle of September, is counterintuitive to the usual principle of buying on the rumor. Apple is widely expected to unveil its smaller, lower-cost iPad Mini next week, with invitations for the event believed to be coming over the next few days.

As of 9:54 a.… Read more

Zynga executive exodus continues: Zynga Poker GM leaves

Adding to a growing number of Zynga executives who have left the social gaming company this year, Zynga Poker General Manager Laurence "Lo" Toney has moved on from the struggling company, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Zynga Poker is the company's first social game and the largest free-to-play online poker game, according to Zynga's site. CNET has contacted a Zynga spokesperson for comment and will update when we hear back.

Toney's departure, first noticed by All Things D, comes as the company faces slowed growth and slumping stock. Its stock closed at $2.43 a … Read more