There's been a long-standing fear about Apple's normally bullish stock plummeting if Steve Jobs passed away. But just a few hours into trading on the morning after the visionary's death, the stock is holding steady. After a brief dip in early morning trading, the stock surged ahead of its opening share price and has been wobbling around Wednesday's closing price, which was set hours before news of Jobs's death broke. The lack of activity stands in stark contrast to the hit Apple took following news of Jobs's resignation. As New York Times data wizard Nate Silver noted at the time, "AAPL has lost $18 billion in market capitalization since the Jobs news broke, about the same as the GDP of Paraguay." Last month's panic, analysts seem to agree, is exactly why Apple's holding so steady on Thursday. Oppenheimer analyst Ittai Kidron told Dow Jones Newswires, "Apple's shares showed some weakness following Mr. Jobs's resignation, but the muted reaction showed investors had already largely built his smaller role with Apple into their expectations." "Muted" is the exact opposite word we'd use to describe Apple fans' reaction to Steve Jobs's death, however. The news broke Twitter's records for tweet volume--10,000 per second--on Wednesday night.

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Adam Clark Estes