Apple stock hits new high after 4-month dip

NEW YORK (AP) â€" Apple's stock hit a new high Friday after a four-month swoon, as investors look ahead to the release of a new iPhone and possibly a smaller iPad.Already the world's most valuable company, Apple Inc. saw its stock hit $645.48 in midday trading, before retreating to $645.02. That was up $8.68, or 1.4 percent, from Thursday's close.The previous high for the stock was $644, hit on April 10.Apple has a market value of about $605 billion, almost 50 percent higher than No. 2 Exxon Mobil Corp. at $408 billion.Apple's stock fell last month after the company's earnings report for the April-June quarter showed the slowest growth in more...

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Facebook insiders can sell stock as 'lock-up' ends

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) â€" Facebook's early investors and a handful of directors will become eligible on Thursday to sell stock they own in the social networking company. It marks the beginning of a time-honored process for public companies, one that will give many Facebook employees the same right to sell their shares this fall.It's conceivable none of them will sell. But if they do, up to 1.91 billion more shares could flood the stock market over the next several months â€" more than four times the 421 million shares that have been trading since Facebook's initial public offering in May.So-called "lock-up" periods, which prevent insiders...

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What we've done on Mars, and what's next

(CNN) -- The much-celebrated Mars rover Curiosity is headed for Mount Sharp, where it will help scientists explore the question of life on Mars as it climbs up and up. Meanwhile, however, NASA's budget for planetary exploration is slated to go down, down, down. Scientists are basking in the success of Curiosity's stunning landing earlier this week, proving that a complicated system involving a parachute and a sky crane can safely deliver a 2,000-pound vehicle to Mars. The $2.6 billion Curiosity will spend years roaming the planet, snapping photos and gathering scientific data. Given the budget constraints facing the space agency,...

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