Apple adds 45 points to Dow's 340-point rally after report that Buffett bought 75 million shares
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slashed an opening drop to trade sharply higher Friday afternoon, on the back of a pop in Apple Inc. . Shares of Apple were contributing about 45-points to the price-weighted Dow after a report from CNBC late Thursday said Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. acquired some 75 million additional shares of the iPhone maker during the first quarter. Shares of Apple were up about 3.7%, or $6.54, contributing about 45 points to the Dow, with a $1 move in any one of the blue-chip gauge's 30 components equating to a 6.89-point swing. The Dow was recently up 344 points, or 1.4%, at 24,272. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index was up about 1.3% at 2,664, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was advancing by 1.7% at 7,210. Apple is the largest company by market value and tends to have an outsize influence on market-value weighted indexes like the Nasdaq and S&P 500.
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