Trading on today’s market was mixed, with the S&P 500 losing 0.19% to finish at 1,692.39, the Nasdaq losing 0.59% to finish at 3,579.27, while the Dow Jones gained 0.14% to finish the day at 15,567.74. The major movers on today’s market were propelled by earnings announcements, though some of the big movers jumped on M&A activity.
Some Dow components released earnings figures that impressed investors before the market opened this morning, while the impressive Nasdaq reports didn’t come until after the market closed.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) released its earnings report after the market closed this afternoon. In the run up to the release of the numbers, the company’s shares lost 1.72%. After the company announced its numbers, however, shares shot up by more than 5% in after market trading.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) showed earnings of $7.47 per share for the quarter ending June 2013 on revenue totaling $35.3 billion. The real impetus for the increase in the company’s stock price was, however, the number of iPhones that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) sold in the three months. The company revealed it shipped 31.2 million iPhones in the quarter, a phenomenal number and many degrees higher than the 26 million the company shipped in the same quarter of 2012.
Sourcefire, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIRE) shares jumped by more than 27% on today’s market after it was announced that Cisco Systems Inc had agreed to buy the $2 billion company. Sourcefire, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIRE) is a cybersecurity company that specializes in enterprise and government cybersecurity solutions.
Cisco is said to have made the acquisition in order to improve its cybersecurity offerings, after a period of losing to smaller companies on contracts. The company will try to build a strong flexible suite of cybersecurity tools in order to take advantage of what is likely a growth area in the next decade.