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Given the volume of Apple newsflow, we hope this end-of-week review helps. We’ve included important headlines and a few sleepers, aggregated from Apple Investor News:
• Why is Apple Living in Denial? – Forbes says Apple doesn’t get the severity of the recession, and chastises it for making only minor price cuts to its refreshed desktop Macs, announced Tuesday. Some analysts agreed. Didn’t Apple just have a fabulous holiday season keeping prices intact? Certainly this current quarter — AAPL’s first non-holiday, middle-of-recession quarter — will provide clarity on this issue. But if Apple can keep within 5% of its projections, it will be seen as an accomplishment. And it’s good that Apple isn’t so trigger-happy to dilute its brand with excessive price cuts. Read More
The Dow Jones industrial average, or DJIA, is perhaps the mostly widely recognized index in the world. When people talk about “The Market” in cabs and in bars, and on the phone, they do not really mean the advance/decline line. They do not mean the S&P 500. They don’t even mean the tech-heavy NASDAQ. They mean the stodgy old DJIA.
The chairman of the board of directors of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) has just used today’s weakness to buy stock. Richard Kovacevich spent $805,000 to purchase 100,000 shares of Wells Fargo common stock at an average of $8.05 per share. He owns about 2.365 million shares. Wells Fargo shares are off of the lows, but the stock is still down 14% at $8.28 at a new 52-week low if this closes under $8.81. Its 52-week high is $44.75. As a reminder, this is one of Warren Buffett’s 
Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) is set to report earnings after the close of trading today. While the actual earnings number is probably irrelevant, that is not true for the revenue. This report may actually have a spillover impact on other larger companies such as partner Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S).
DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) has filed proposals with the Michigan Public Service Commission over plans to significantly increase the amount of renewable energy generated in the state. The company is using legislation passed last year which calls for Michigan electric utilities to serve 10% of retail sales with renewable energy by 2015. DTE is proposing an added 1,200 megawatts of renewable energy.
Oil Baron T. Boone Pickens has been making presentations this month about the dependence on foreign oil and over the cost of energy. Today, you saw a more confident Pickens than the man who had lost a billion or two billion dollars as oil tanked in 2008. He made one of his bold oil predictions on CNBC today.
Citigroup (G), until recently the largest financial services company in the world, traded below $1 at 11.37 AM today, one more road mark on its trip to a becoming a firm which is essentially controlled by the US government and still may be broken into pieces and nationalized.
In a presentation for analysts today, Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) outlined plans to invest $25 billion to $30 billion in each of the next five years to meet expected long-term growth in world energy demand. Exxon’s capital spending in 2008 totaled $26 billion.
Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) gave some mixed guidance last night, but in today’s climate of tech washouts any guidance is a win. That is what we are seeing this morning, and analyst calls are helping to push the shares up further.
Barely a week ago, we noted that Terra Industries, Inc. (NYSE: TRA) was likely to refuse an unsolicited offer from CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CF) because the deal included only 0.4325 shares of CF stock for each Terra share, and 
There are a couple issues around the defense of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) this morning. An analyst note is defending the stock, and CFO Keith Sherin gave an interview early this morning to CNBC addressing all of the rumors that have been passed around Wall Street. We recently ran what 
People who don’t have much money still need to buy the essentials somewhere. That place seems to be Wal-Mart (WMT) which still sells a lot of nifty stuff at low prices.
These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive calls from Wall Street we are seeing this Thursday morning with about two hours until the market opens:
These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades and negative calls we have seen from Wall Street this Thursday morning with about two hours until the open:
GM’s (GM) auditors expressed doubt that the car company will remain a “going concern.” Accountants often offer these opinions. They don’t usually mean much. If GM gets $100 billion from the federal government tomorrow it no longer has the problem.
With the drop in stock prices there are a lot of companies that don’t belong in the S&P 500. As a matter of fact, there may not be enough large cap firms to keep the S&P 500 at a level where it contains 500 companies that really matter. 
Around the world, PC sales are dying. The global recession is causing consumers and businesses to defer purchases until their current machines break down. Their older computers have powerful enough processors and adequate versions of Microsoft (MSFT) Windows to last until kingdom come. 
