The massive rise in Nintendo's shares stands out especially given Apple's own stock is stagnant, even after its announcement. Shares of Apple are up roughly 2% this year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 has risen nearly 9%. Apple's stock did get a better first-day reception than in recent history, the best since the 1.4% gain in 2012 when the iPhone 5 was announced. That was an improvement from the no change on the day the downsized iPhone SE was announced earlier this year, and the 2% decline in 2015 with the announcement of the iPhone 6S in 2015. But today's Apple stock reaction pales compared to the 8.3% one-day pop when the original iPhone was announced nearly a decade ago.
It's not like investors were expecting much from Apple. Shares fell 0.6% in the 30 days prior to the iPhone 7 announcement, well below the 3.8% average gain in the month ahead of previous iPhone announcements. Most analysts were braced for a ho-hum conference with more incremental changes to the watch and phone.