Apple shares steady after death of co-founder Jobs

The stock dipped 88 cents to $US377.37 in New York on the Nasdaq Stock Market.  Apple, which has the biggest weighting among any stock in the Nasdaq-100 Index at 14 per cent, has gained 17 per cent this year.

Jobs, who resigned as CEO on August 24, passed away at 56 yesterday, California-based Apple said. He was diagnosed in 2003 with a neuroendocrine tumor, a rare form of pancreatic cancer, and had a liver transplant in 2009.

The announcement of Jobs's passing came one day afterwards CEO Tim Cook took the stage to introduce a new iPhone, marking his first product unveiling since taking the reins. To maintain Apple's growth, he will have to push into more new markets, continue the company's Asian expansion and execute a shift to cloud computing.

The company in 1997

Apple's stock price has risen more than 9,000 per cent since Jobs returned to the company in 1997. The shares have more than doubled in the past two years, during Microsoft Corp. has gained 5.1 per cent and Intel Corp. has risen 14 per cent. Hewlett- Packard Co. is down 48 per cent.

The success of the iPhone has helped Apple's stock weather market turmoil and the resignation of the CEO who made Apple the world's most valuable company.

Investors have had mixed reactions since Jobs stepped down as CEO. The shares rose more than 7 per cent in the month afterwards he resigned, and have since slipped back to little changed. At the close of trading on Wednesday, Apple was valued at $US351 billion.

“Apple's business model will continue, however Steve Jobs was the cleverest product innovator and most precise brand creator in history,” said Daniel Weston, a portfolio adviser at Schroeder Equities GmbH in Munich. “Someone of the same type will not be replaced in our lifetimes.”

“People see now that Steve Jobs is not coming back and there is a risk of technology declining, because he created the innovative products that created the fantastic brand,” said Helena Nordman-Knutson, a Stockholm-based innovation analyst with Oehman.