All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):
10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:
And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:
What is interesting is the fact that the stock held the 200-d moving average. It did the same two weeks ago but if this support line is violated on heavy volume, watch out!
Yes, "wow" is one way to put it (what actually appears between the quotes probably varies greatly depending on a person's position). Imagine having the power to cause >70M dollars to change hands in less the 30 minutes just by making ambiguous statements that could be taken in a multitude of ways, depending on the hearer's predisposition. For example: "Lot' Of Growth Ahead, But Rate Is Question" + "I'm Not Turning Bearish At All" + "A Lot Of Opportunity" + "Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing" doesn't really sound all that bad, in and of itself...at least not 70M dollars bad.