Top Tickers of the Week: Jan 18
Editors Note: The list of top tickers is derived from the quote pages that received the most views on Yahoo! Finance by examining data for the current week. It is not, however, a list of the most searched-for tickers on our site.
1. Apple (AAPL)
Tracking the fall of Apple, already a favorite pastime to many, could become one of the most popular sports on Wall Street this year if the company’s start to 2013 is any indication.
The week kicked off with The Wall Street Journal reporting that Apple had slashed orders for iPhone 5 parts by half. It was another flag in a growing field of red flags. According to market intelligence firm IDC, Samsung’s Galaxy controlled 31.3% of the smartphone market in the third-quarter of 2012 compared to 14.6% for Apple.
2. Facebook (FB)
Facebook was the second-most viewed ticker this week as Wall Street awaited the dramatic unveiling of a mystery product on Tuesday. The buzz quickly faded after Mark Zuckerberg drew back the curtain on “Graph Search,” a product that allows user to do their searches on everything from restaurants to music within Facebook’s pool of more than 1 billion users.
"It's a way to dive into the vast Facebook database with all the personal information of the billion people who use it and find answers to your questions about people," Steven Levy senior writer at WIRED, told Breakout on Tuesday.
Despite the buzz leading up to the event, Facebook acknowledged that turning Graph Search into a revenue generator is a ways off. That is the very definition of a buzz kill. Shares peaked above $32 on Monday, only to slide the rest of the week. Shares have fallen close to 7% this week.
3. Bank of America (BAC)
Bank of America’s earnings results, released on Thursday, showed that the country’s housing crisis continues to have a long tail. The country’s second-largest bank said fourth-quarter earnings and revenue declined as it continued to deal with mortgage-related matters. Bank of America purchased subprime lender Countrywide Financial in 2008.
However, the company also said mortgage lending volume was on the rise and expenses were falling at the division that handles its troubled home loans.
CEO Brian Moyniahn is being given due credit for helping right the ship, but now questions as to whether he can actually grow the business are popping up.
“Boosting profit now is tricky for any bank CEO, because lending margins are thin and regulations and capital rules are squeezing income from many banking businesses,” noted Reuters.
4. Intel (INTC)
Intel deflated global markets on Friday after announcing disappointing third-quarter earnings and warning of continued challenges ahead. Diminishing demand for PCs has the chipmaker on pace for a third consecutive quarter of falling sales.
Plans to spend $13 billion on new plants and equipment aren’t likely to have a material impact on results for some time.
“They are definitely coming from behind and their market is moving away from them,” Patrick Wang, an analyst at Evercore Partners, told Bloomberg.
Shares of Intel are up 6% for the year, but shed 4% of their value this week.
5. Nokia (NOK)
Interest in Nokia carried over from earnings results announced last week, when it issued strong fourth-quarter guidance. In particular, investors focused on shipments of Lumia Windows Phone 8 smartphones, which skyrocketed to 4.4 million during the fourth quarter. So is Nokia on the verge of making a comeback?
Talk of the resurgence were deflated on Thursday when the company announced another round of job cuts. This time, more than 1,000 people were given pink slips and were part of a plan announced in June to eliminate 10,000 positions and close plants.
Shares of Nokia are up 10% year to date, but shares were down 4% this week.
6. Research in Motion (RIMM)
RIM also spurred talk of a comeback this week, as buzz starts to build around the launch of the BlackBerry 10 smartphone. Like Nokia, RIMM has lost nearly all its mojo to Apple and Samsung in the smartphone arena, and the BlackBerry 10 may be its last and only hope of regaining some ground.
The company has introduced a program to help customers with the transition to the new phones. An executive told Reuters this week that more than 1,600 customers had registered for the BlackBerry 10 Ready Program.
Last weekend, the company hosted a “portathon,” to help build up BlackBerry 10’s portfolio of apps so new users of the phone will have at least some of the same functionality of an iPhone or Android phone. According to the company, some 15,000 submissions were received.
