Market Preview: The Great Consolidation

As for Wednesday's scheduled news, there's not much of note on the earnings front. The economics calendar includes the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly application activity index at 7 a.m. ET; new home sales for August at 10 a.m. ET; and weekly crude inventories at 10:30 a.m. ET.

And finally, it will be interesting to see how low Apple (AAPL) goes in the near-term as the stock has made a fairly big break from its all-time highs so far this week. Based on Tuesday's close at $673.54, the shares have now dropped 4.5% since peaking at $705.07 on Monday.

If the stock moves another leg lower, it will likely counter the impact of sell side's seemingly astronomical expectations for the iPhone. Late Tuesday, there was yet another indication of how magical Apple's brand remains as a marketing research firm estimated nearly a quarter of Android smartphone owners are considering a switch to the iPhone.

Also, Jabil Circuit (JBL) shares were lower in late trades after the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based electronics manufacturing services company missed Wall Street's expectations for its latest quarterly results.

Jabil posted core earnings of $113.3 million, or 54 cents a share, in its fiscal fourth quarter ended in August on revenue of $4.34 billion, below the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for a profit of 58 cents a share.

The company, which also announced a $100 million buyback program, attributed its performance in the fourth quarter to the negative impact of a "challenging" new program ramp in its specialized services unit as well as weak demand in most of its business segments.

The stock was last quoted at $20.37, down 3%, on extended volume of more than 440,000, according to Nasdaq.com.

Another late news maker was Yahoo! (YHOO), whose shares got a boost in late trades after the Internet company named Ken Goldman to the chief financial officer post.

Goldman replaces Tim Morse, who had been with Yahoo for more than three years. Morse is expected to leave the company this fall. Goldman most recently served as CFO of Fortinet (FTNT).

Yahoo shares tacked on more than 1% following the news, which is the first major appointment of CEO Marissa Mayer's tenure at the top.

--Written by Michael Baron in New York.



>To contact the writer of this article, click here: Michael Baron.

Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors, reporters and analysts from holding positions in any individual stocks.

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