Four Apple Headlines From Monday You Might Have Missed (AAPL)

Shares of Apple AAPL continued to decline Monday, giving up about 1.2 percent to close at $476.75.

Technically, the stock is close to a test of its 50-day moving average that sits at $475.02. Despite the U.S. government shutdown now under way, markets are indicated up slightly in the early morning hours which could give Apple the boost it needs to move higher and away from the key 50 day level. Here are some of the headlines from Monday.

Analyst Action

Global Equities Research maintained its “Overweight” rating on the stock but raised its price target from $650 to $725.

Boost Mobile to Begin Carrying New iPhones

Boost Mobile, a subsidiary of Sprint S will begin selling iPhones for the first time after reliable source, evleaks posts leaked images of Boost marketing materials to its Twitter account. Boost Mobile offers prepaid plans on a no-contract basis competing with other prepaid carriers like Cricket, Virgin Mobile, and Straight Talk, another Sprint subsidiary.

No word on when the official announcement will take place but estimates are Q3 of 2013.

Related: Four Weekend Apple Stories You Might Have Missed

New iPhone Boosting Sales for Struggling Carrier

T-Mobile TMUS has Apple to thank for un uptick in smartphone sales in the three months ending August 2013, according to a Kantar Worldpanel research note released Monday. T-Mobile’s market share of smartphone sales increased to 13.2 percent—up 1.1 percent from the previous period.

In a second report, Kantar said that the iPhone held a 39.3 percent share of smartphone sales in the United States for the three months ending August 2013—a figure compiled before the launch of the 5S and 5C. It also found that the iPhone held a 48.6 percent share in Japan versus Android’s 47.4 percent.

Delta Pilots Not Happy with the Airline’s Microsoft Surface Decision

Airlines are equipping their pilots with iPads instead of heavy flight bags but Delta DAL announced that it would use Microsoft MSFT’s Surface 2 tablet instead of the iPad. Microsoft is certainly happy but Delta pilots—not so much. One Delta pilot told AppleInsider, “We fought hard for the iPad” but Delta’s IT department is, “in bed” with Microsoft.

The move is curious since the Surface is not yet approved by the FAA and with the migration expected to take about two years, its chances of still being on the market in two years is questionable unless the product gains mass market share.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Tim Parker was long Apple.