Apple's Earnings Report: 4 Big Red Flags

Investors and analysts can't seem to decide whether Apple just gave them good news or bad news.

Apple's stock has been on a roller coaster ride since the company released its March earnings report shortly after the market closed on Tuesday. At first, the stock shot up by more than 5%, but as the earnings call got under way, it started to trickle back down. Just before the market opened Wednesday, the stock was down more than 3% — a swing of nearly $40 per share in about 17 hours.

As I write this, the stock is hovering right around the $400 mark and bouncing back and forth between positive and negative for the day. That reaction might seem odd given the first wave of headlines after the earnings report came out, which billed it as a strong beat for the company. Indeed, it was good on the whole, with Apple reporting better-than-expected revenue, earnings and sales of the iPhone and iPad — much better sales of the iPad, in fact, than analysts had anticipated Read more...