Market Wrap: Apple Went Streaking!; S&P Cuts Italy; IMF Warns, Lowers Outlook; Netflix's Horror Film is Real

Market wrap-up for September 20th.

End of the Day: Dow Jones up 7.6 to 11,408.66; Nasdaq down 22.59 to 2,590.24; S&P 500 down 2 to 1,202.09

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:

• An Apple a Day: Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) shares continue winning streak, now a total of seven sessions in a row. After closing 1.7 percent lower to $377.48 on September 9th, the stock has risen 9.5 percent over the last several sessions. Apple has (almost jokingly) been pegged as a better safe haven investment than gold at this point, though both are acting relatively stable following August volatility.
  
  
• Mama Mia! Not another downgrade!: Standard & Poor's cut its rating on Italy from A+ to A, citing it's weak economic growth, "fragile" government, and increasing borrowing costs. U.S. markets appeared to have shrugged-off the move, closing mixed on Tuesday's session.
  
  Berlusconi's office issued an email which stated S&P's valuations "seem dictated more by newspaper speculation than by reality, and appear influenced by political considerations." The S&P responded by saying ratings are "apolitical," and indicate how different "political initiatives may impact financial accountability."
  
  
• Reform or recession: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut it's global growth outlook today, down 0.3 points to 4 percent for 2011 and by 0.5 points to 4 percent for 2012. The IMF sees the U.S. growing at 1.5 percent in 2011, slightly shy of the 1.6 percent for the eurozone. Japan is forecast to contract 0.5 percent. The IMF cautioned to major economies that recession may be imminent unless governments took concerted actions to revamp economic policy.
  
  
• Feature Presentation: Netflix gets slaughtered: Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), continued to get thwomped Tuesday as investors evaluate their positions in the company. Shares closed 9.5 percent lower. The company rose prices rapidly, rather than gradually, issued a response and further information months after the fact, and then is splitting off the key business that got them there in the first place. Shares are down over 36 percent since Netflix lowered its third-quarter domestic subscriber metrics late last week.
  
  
• Americans don't want a BlackBerry. Really.: According to it's quarterly filing, Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) saw it's US sales cut in half from $2.22 billion to $1.11 billion last quarter. In the U.K., sales slipped just 2.3 percent to $419 million, while sales in Canada rose 7.7 percent to $308 million. Notably, sales outside the U.S., U.K., and Canada rose 38 percent to $2.33 billion.
  
  
• No, Madoff didn't play cards. We think.: Full Tilt Poker may have been a Ponzi scheme, according to the U.S. Justice Department. According to the complain, Full Tilt may have misrepresented the safety of players' funds, when they were actually being paid out to executive and other famous poker players.
  
  

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