NASDAQ on Tuesday announced that it will adjust the weighing of several companies in the NASDAQ-100 index to better reflect their market capitalizations. The NASDAQ-100 index is comprised of the 100 biggest non-financial stocks on the NASDAQ exchange. The adjustment, which will take place on May 2nd, is the first of its kind since 1998. Apple will take the biggest hit as its weighting will be adjusted down from 20.46% of the the index to 12.33%. The Cupertino-based company’s representation on the NASD...

With Steve Jobs’ medical leave from Apple, many expected the company’s stock to get hit quite a bit — and they’d be right as shares of AAPL are down around 5% as the market opens this morning. Don’t forget that Apple is reporting its Holiday quarter earnings later today, however, and the consensus is that Apple will have the biggest and most profitable quarter ever. Apple’s earnings can and most likely will help the stock overcome the impact of Jobs’ leave from Apple,...

Some analysts could soon find themselves in hot water as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into the legality of “channel checks.” Channel checks refer to the practice whereby analysts contact inside sources at manufacturing companies in order to glean inside information. This information often has a tendency to move the market, of course, but the SEC is now trying to determine whether or not the practice should be legal. “Insider trading basically comes down to wher...

What happens when you write a fake story that Steve Jobs had been rushed to hospital suffering a heart attack and post it on CNN’s ireport.com website? You will cause Apple’s stock to plummet and lose nearly $4.8 billion in market value before the story is debunked by Apple. You will also find yourself on the wrong end of an agressive SEC investigation. Such is the case of “Johntw”, the 18 year old author of said blatantly misleading and false post. According to anonymous sources famil...