Apple Shares Hit a Slump

Updated from 1:40 p.m. EDT

Apple (AAPL) shares sagged lower for the second day in a row after a sharp rally earlier in the week sparked by the fevered iPhone debut at San Francisco's MacWorld.

The stock was recently trading at $94.37 after shedding 1.5%, or $1.43.

Weighing on the stock Friday was a report that federal investigators are probing a falsified stock option grant for 7.5 million options to CEO Steve Jobs approved by Apple's board in October 2001, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The board didn't actually meet that month, the report said, and investigators want to talk to two former Apple attorneys who allegedly falsified the date of the grant.

Apple conducted its own internal investigation into its stock options practices, and it is also under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. attorney.

In a 10-K filed with the SEC in December, Apple said it would pay $84 million in charges related to the backdating, and the board issued a statement that it believes the stock option problems are corrected and that it has "complete confidence in Steve Jobs and the senior management team."

The misstated grant date to Jobs resulted in a charge of $20 million out of the $84 million Apple is paying related to stock options manipulations.

"It's still kind of uncertain as to whether [Jobs] was involved in any backdating of his own grant or the manufacture of a mythical board meeting," says Paul Hodgson, a senior research associate at The Corporate Library. "We're not any closer to knowing."