Apple gains on announcement of iPhone

In early afternoon trade on Wall Street on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.35 percent lower to 12,380.23. The Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 were both lower as well, with the Nasdaq down 0.45 percent to 2,427.34 and the S&P down 0.40 percent to 1,407.12. Investors were worried after warnings from a number of companies that fourth-quarter results will not live up to expectations.

The oil sector was lower as crude prices fell again. ExxonMobil dropped 17 cents to $72.48, while Chevron was 55 cents lower to $70.90 and BP fell $1.83 to $62.46 on a report of falling output and narrower margins.

Alcoa, the world’s largest producer of aluminium, which was scheduled to announce its quarterly results after the close of trade, dropped 3 cents to $28.45 on concerns about the contents of the report, which is expected to show a proft of 66 cents per share.

Sprint Nextel, which said that results for 2007 will not be as high as anticipated, fell $2.03 to $17.61 and was the recipient of lowered recommendations from several brokers.

Apple Computer was $2.55 higher to $88.03 when Steve Jobs announced that its new iPhone will go into production, combining its iPod music player with a mobile telephone.

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