Apple Stock Dips, Company Loses $5.5 Billion Morning After Steve Jobs CEO Resignation

NEW YORK - Shares of tech giant Apple were down only slightly in early Thursday trading, following late Wednesday's news that Steve Jobs resigned as CEO. As of 9:45am ET, Apple's stock was trading at $369.79, down 1.7 percent, less than a third the 6 percent drop in Wednesday after-hours, which had signaled a loss of about $18 billion in market value. The early morning trading gave Apple a market capitalization of about $348.8 billion, according to Bloomberg. That was down about $5.5 billion from Wednesday night when multiplying the stock price decline with the number of outstanding Apple shares. Analysts had said Wednesday evening that not much should change at Apple overnight with Jobs' decision to focus on the chairman role. Daniel Ernst, analyst at Hudson Square Research, told The Hollywood Reporter that he still recommends investors buy Apple's stock amid the decline. "The Apple story is not about a given day or even a whole quarter," he said. "Apple is a long term story of product innovation, share gains and operating execution. If the stock is down, its an opportunity to buy." Wedbush Securities analyst Scott Sutherland echoed that view. Apple remained the U.S. company with the second-highest market value after in recent days being overtaken again by oil giant Exxon Mobile. Jobs' resignation has put the spotlight on new CEO Tim Cook who is described as calm, cool, but also secretive and occasionally brutal. Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com Twitter: @georgszalai Related Topics Steve Jobs Apple