TORONTO -- Research In Motion shares in New York played catch-up Friday to the dramatic surge seen in Toronto a day earlier.
On the Nasdaq market, which reopened after being closed Thursday for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, RIM shares (Nasdaq:RIMM) closed up almost 14 per cent at US$11.66 during a shortened trading session.
After surging 17 per cent on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday, RIM (TSX:RIM) shares on that market gave back 39 cents, or 3.25 per cent, to close at C$11.61.
"People are looking at that stock in two ways," said Sadiq Adatia, chief investment officer of Sun Life Global Investment.
"One way is that (RIM is) tightening its belt,' Adatia said, adding that the company is "doing a bit of reputational damage repair" either in hopes of being bought out or "they truly feel the new product launch they will be having should actually do quite well."
The Waterloo, Ont., company's new BlackBerry 10 operating system -- which will be unveiled at a Jan. 30 event along with its new line of smartphones -- is widely considered a make or break product launch for Research in Motion.
The Thursday spike in Toronto came after a week of steady gains amid more positive sentiment, but analysts are still guarded about the potential success of RIM's new operating system.
On Thursday, National Bank Financial analyst Kris Thompson said he was boosting his price target for RIM to US$15 per share from US$12.
"We think there is more money to be made ahead of the 2013 launch of BB10," Thompson said in a research note.
Earlier this week, prominent tech analyst Peter Misek gave RIM's new operating system a small but improved chance of success as he raised his target price to US$10 from US$5.
Misek, of New York-based Jeffries & Company, said he was surprised by the strongly positive initial feedback on RIM's new BB10 handset from carriers. Still, he's giving the BlackBerry 10 operating system only a 20 to 30 per cent probability of successfully taking on Apple and Android-based phones.
There have been repeated delays in bringing the new RIM smartphones to market and the company has suffered two embarrassing service outages.
RIM's latest outage was in September, the same day that Apple's new iPhone launched in stores. In Oct. 2011, RIM's outage lasted several days affecting millions of users globally.
