The thing is, what if Steve Jobs couldn't return to Apple at all? So market was pricing that possibility into the price of Apple stock.
There is a legitimate concern, that without Jobs to supervise things, in a year or two, the "magic" of getting the right product out at Apple would be gone.
Sure, Apple would still be making money, because Tim Cook is a great COO, but the "vision" would slowly fade.
Think, Microsoft over the last 10 years(stock basically has stayed put). Microsoft still makes money, but it has a lot of misses to show for its hits. Meanwhile, Apple has been hitting them out of the ballpark.
Remember, when you are buying Apple stock you are paying a premium on the expected growth.
And yet the stocks have bounced way up in under two months. The only way that wasn't going to happen was if Jobs died, or perhaps if he announced a permanent retirement. Neither of those things were going to happen so quickly after the announcement, otherwise they wouldn't have announced it the way they did.
So yes, the market was pricing that possibility, but it was obvious that in no time at all it would forget about it and go mad over the Apple's short-term future. Sure enough, it did.
