25 billion served up: iTunes hits milestone
25 billion served up: iTunes hits milestone
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The answer to the trivia question will be: “Monkey Drums (Goskel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch.” That’s the 25-billionth song purchased on iTunes.
Apple announced the sales milestone in a news release Wednesday. The company says Phillip Lupke of Germany purchased and downloaded Buch’s song and will receive an iTunes gift card worth $13, 500.
It took the Cupertino, Calif., company almost 10 years to reach the milestone. Customers download an average of 15,000 songs a minute from the iTunes music store, which was launched in April 2003. The digital retailer’s catalog is 26 million songs deep.
Online:
http://apple.com
Stocks are little changed
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks were flat on Wall Street as the latest round of earnings reports failed to give investors an impetus to push the market’s recent rally forward.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 7.22 points to 13,986.52 on Wednesday, after trading slightly lower for most of the day. The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.83 point to 1,512.12. The Nasdaq composite was three points lower at 3,168.48
Time Warner rose $2.05, or 4.1 percent, to $52.01 after the company said its net income grew 51 percent in the last three months of 2012 even as revenue was largely unchanged. Marathon Oil Corp. fell 32 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $34.40 after its fourth-quarter net income fell 41 percent on higher exploration costs and taxes.
Stocks are consolidating their gains after surging since the start of the year. The Dow closed above 14,000 for the first time since December 2007 Friday and had its best January in almost two decades. The index is up 6.7 percent this year; the broader S&P 500 is 6 percent higher.
“There’s no question that we need to take a pause and let reality catch up,” said Jim Russell, an investment director at U.S. Bank.
Hawaiian reports passenger increase
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaiian Airlines says more passengers flew its airline in January.
The airline reported Wednesday that it transported 792,009 passengers for the month, an increase of 7.2 percent compared to the same month a year ago.
The airline says in January more than 80 percent of seats were filled.
Hawaiian Airlines is Hawaii’s biggest airline, providing passenger air service for visitors from the mainland.