Problems with the Dow

1. Arbitrary selection of companies
2. No accounting of size
3. No adjustments for inflation
4. Lack of explanation for the portion of company activities that are international

Kinnucan, who was arrested on Thursday, is accused of leaking tips that he received from Apple suppliers such as SanDisk and Flextronics to hedge funds managers.

In real life, the Dow closed at 12,874.04 on Feb 13, 2012. However, if they had added Apple instead of Cisco, the Dow Jones would be at 14,926.95. That’s over 800 points higher than the all-time high of 14,164 previously set on 4/7/2008.

How much Apple really affects market indexes.

The results are striking: For all the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, earnings are on track to post a 6.6% year-on-year rise in the fourth quarter. Once Apple’s earnings are factored out, the expected fourth-quarter gain shrivels to just 2.8%, according to UBS.

At around 1PM Apple’s market cap briefly passed ExxonMobil’s, but ExxonMobil closed slightly higher.

via Daring Fireball

Eric Raymond, 89 days ago:

The question is no longer whether Android can be stopped, but when Apple’s market share will fall off a cliff. I think that could easily happen as soon as the next 90 days; one of the patterns in technology disruptions is that collapse often follows the victim’s best quarter ever.

Apple, today:

The Company sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

Keep hitting them home runs.

• Profits up 125%
• iPhone growth 142%
• iPad growth 183%

Handy guide by the Economist to understanding how Bitcoin works (technically and monetarily).