At least for a day, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is king, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) playing second fiddle.
Amazon sent a declaration of tablet war Wednesday with the reveal of the new Kindle Fire, a tablet at a $300 discount to Apple’s iPad. Also announced on the day was an upgraded e-reader, the Kindle Touch, which will go for $99 (or $149 for a 3G connectivity-enabled model), and the original Kindle’s price was dropped to $79.
The news sent AMZN shares higher by as much as 4.9% on Wednesday before settling at $229.50, or up about 2.36% — thus lining the pockets of any investor smart enough to day-trade Amazon, knowing shares would bump on anything short of the Kindle Fire actually igniting mid-demonstration.
The news also continued the slowing of the iPhone- and iPad-led march to Apple 500 — actually, for right now, back to Apple 400 — as AAPL ground out the day with a 0.6% loss to $396.92. The stock has ceded about $25 from its Sept. 17 peak.
Elsewhere in the market, steelmakers were hammered hard as a whole Wednesday on global slowdown fears, with the Arca Steel Index bleeding almost 5%. Among big losers in the sector were AK Steel (NYSE:AKS), dropping 8.4% to $6.65, and U.S. Steel (NYSE:X), shedding almost 6% to $22.47.
Three Up- Jabil Circuit (NYSE:JBL): Up 8.4% ($1.46) to $18.84.
- Pandora (NYSE:P): Up 6.04% ($0.73) to $12.82.
- United Continental (NYSE:UAL): Up 1.62% (33 cents) to $20.76.
- First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR): Down 10.41% ($7.52) to $64.75.
- Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE:SLW): Down 6.98% ($2.30) to $30.63.
- Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL): Down 3.5% ($5.21) to $143.56.
Kyle Woodley does not own shares in any of the aforementioned companies.