Apple shares rebound on Jobs news
Update with analysts comments and stock performance.
Shares of Apple rose as much as 5.63 percent in late morning trading Monday, following an announcement by co-founder Steve Jobs that he would remain as CEO while undergoing hormone therapy treatment.
Jobs' disclosure of a hormone imbalance as the reason for his health decline and that he would remain as CEO while recovering from therapy treatments propelled shares of Apple to as high as $95.86 during intraday trading.
That bump to the stock not only came on a day that the Dow Jones Industries were in the red, but also returned Apple's shares to a level where they were trading two weeks ago, when the computer maker stunned Wall Street with its Macworld news.
In mid-December, Apple announced Jobs would forgo his keynote speech at Macworld and that the company would not participate in future Macworld events, renewing rumors and speculation that the high-profile CEO was gravely ill. Apple's stock fell from $95.43 a share to $89.16 a share following that announcement. And over the two-week period, the computer maker's shares dipped as low as $84.55 a share.
Investors apparently appreciated the update Jobs provided on his health, said analyst Shaw Wu, an analyst with Kaufman Bros.
"Investors wanted more transparency and I think the announcement was a lot better than what people feared," Wu said.
He added, however, the announcement by Jobs and Apple was not a total surprise, given the CEO had previously undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer and that his gaunt appearance over the past year had raised investors concerns, while the company and the founder provided very little information about his health.
Dawn Kawamoto covers enterprise security and financial news relating to technology for CNET News. E-mail Dawn. 
Which means they're still worth half of what they were seven months ago.
Oh yeah, and the tech markets are about half red/half green just now.
- by jwilson00m1 January 5, 2009 12:25 PM PST
- If you think about Steve's recent medical history this makes pretty good sense. He thought he was Ok, then found he had pancreatic cancer which has an abysmal survival rate, then he disappears for a bit and comes back looking pretty good then he starts to thin out. If I had to guess, I'd say he had his pancreas removed. Now he's trying to live without one which is possible but hard. He'd have to use an insulin pump our other insulin source such as injections or the new inhaled version, and he'd have to take enzymes that would act like the enzymes that he pancreas puts into the intestine to absorb nutrients (fats and proteins). As you might imagine it is pretty hard to mimic the actions of the pancreas with pills and injections. It is not an enviable position to be in but at least he's not dead.
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