By the time market was closed for the trading day of April 28, 2006, 590 million Microsoft shares changed hands, making it the sixth most actively traded single stock in a day -- the top 5 are occupied by the bankrupted Worldcom in mid 2002. I'm a vicitm too -- the 11.5% drop in MSFT wiped out 55% of the value of my employee stock option account.

The company is apparently making a bet to heavily invest to close the gap with Google, Yahoo and alike. I do still have confidence on the company and my options. After all, most of them will only expire five years from now, so time will prove whether my choice is right.

It doesn't look like a terribly strong day for the markets, but most of the weakness in the Dow industrials comes from Microsoft, which was hammered, losing 11% and accounting for a 25-point drag on the blue-chip average. But while the major indexes were nothing special, the market exuded confidence that the Federal Reserve has neared the end of its tightening campaign. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange/KBW Bank Index gained 2% on the day, helped along by a 3.7% rise in Citigroup, which was upgraded by Piper Jaffray. "You've had an appropriate response in the financials, including some of these large money center banks," to the prospect of lower rates, said Barry Hyman, chief market strategist at Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum.