Where will the Apple land?

            Many events can affect the price of a stock.  The most prominent of these are earnings announcements combined with the ensuing conference calls for analysts. Earnings are not the only event which can affect the price of a stock.  For Apple, one of the most important events is the annual Worldwide Developers Conference held June 6 - June 10 in San Francisco.  Apple generally approaches the conference behind a veil of secrecy. Numerous website and blogs sole purpose is to divine the information to be presented by Apple.  This year the focus was on whether or not Steve Job's would attend the conference and what, if any, new products would be announced.

            Apple took the unusual step this past Tuesday of pre-announcing what it would discuss at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference, but it made an even more out-of-character move by revealing a new product before Steve Jobs had a chance to unveil it.  The company said it would launch iCloud, which it described as "Apple's upcoming cloud services offering." Jobs will shed more light on iCloud during the keynote that will kick off Apple's annual WWDC conference on Monday at 10 a.m. PT(1 p.m. ET)in San Francisco, but digital media experts are already abuzz about what iCloud might offer. Jobs will also be unveiling their new software called Lion, which will be the eight release of a MAC OS X, iO 5 operating system for Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

            This will be the second time, while on medical leave, that Steve Jobs has made an appearance to introduce a new Apple product. Expect the financial community to focus on how Job's physical appearance and the implication upon his future involvement with Apple.  This will affect the price as much or more than any product announcement. Apple traders:  Do not let Mondays keynote catch you by surprise.