And then quietly bounced back 7.03 points (3.55%) in after-hours trading

From http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn ... ahoo_quote


This slingshot was timed to bring Apple's shares down in advance of the company's first quarter earnings report on Monday. The action started at 9:12 a.m. Friday when theflyonthewall.com reported, without explanation, that Deutsche Bank had removed Apple from its short-term buy list — a report that was immediately picked up by the talking heads at CNBC, who mischaracterized it as a "downgrade."

What actually happened, as the folks at Deutsche surely knew but didn't bother to report, was that Apple's six months on their short-term list had expired that morning, triggering a computer instruction that removed it from the buy list automatically.

No matter. The boys were looking for a reason to take a whack at Apple, and this news fit the bill. They set the wheels in motion, and by the close of trading the stock had fallen 10.32 points (3.55%), shaving $9.3 billion off the company's market cap.

The share price having hit bottom, somebody started loading up on AAPL. More than 1.65 million shares traded hands at 3:59 p.m., and at 8.01 p.m. a mysterious settlement trade brought the stock back up to $204.78 — a 3.55% pop in the dark of night. (See chart above, courtesy of AAPL Sanity's sepod. (Subscription required.) [UPDATE: I am told this last trade was a "late cross" from earlier in the day -- a fairly common occurrence on busy trading days -- and will be gone Monday morning.]

Nobody really thinks that Apple is going to deliver a bad report on Monday. Quite the contrary. The consensus among the analysts we polled is that Cupertino had an amazing Christmas quarter, with earning up 30% or more year over year. (See Spotlight on Apple's earnings.)

And I'm inclined to agree with iPhonAsia's Dan Butterfield, who suggested in a bitter post written Friday evening "that the majority of trading desks understood precisely what happened at Deutsche Bank, but held tight to the truth and may have intentionally misled the financial press (by omission)." (See Don't get punked II.)

To his credit, CNBC's Jim Goldman issued a correction an hour and a half before the market closed, explaining that his "downgrade" report was a mistake. But by then there was too much momentum against Apple — and indeed the entire market — for the tide to turn.

It's days like this that make President Obama's so-called Volker Rule — his proposal to ban bank holding companies from owning, investing in or sponsoring hedge funds or private equity funds — sound like maybe it's not so crazy after all.

I have no idea what the market's going to do Monday morning, but people much smarter than I have some pretty good ideas about what Apple is going to report that afternoon. See here.

CNBC is an entertainment station. There is some valid news and there are lots of opinions, but for anyone to push buy/sell buttons because of what is said by CNBC's collection of commentators probably should find more valid reasons.