Apple shares were rising as it announced it had sold one million iPads.

The company announced Monday that sales of the devices topped the benchmark on April 30 28 days after it became available to consumers. Apple is also benefitting from sales of related products. IPad users have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store and over 1.5 million e-books from the new iBookstore, according to the company.

Apple, which sold 70,000 iPads per day in the first week, is now selling about 36,000 a day, according to BMO Capital Markets analyst Keith Bachman. The analyst says strong sales trends are likely to continue through the quarter with help from the 3G version, which went on sale April 30.

In many respects, we are encouraged that the international rollout will not begin until May, which will sustain strong sales in the September quarter, and throughout [2010], in our view, he adds.

The bottom line: Bachman estimates that the company could sell 2.2 million of the devices in the June quarter, up from his previous estimate of two million. The difference would add three cents to five cents a share in profit.

BP Down

BP shares were falling early Monday as the oil giant and the government looked for solutions to a massive oil spill. Shares already fell 13% last week in the wake of the spill that s leaking about 200,000 gallons of oil into the gulf of Mexico each day.

President Obama, who visited the area, said over the weekend that the oil giant would bear the costs of the cleanup and recovery to the affected area. BP chief executive Tony Hayward reiterated on Sunday that BP will do anything and everything we can to stop the leak, attack the spill offshore, and protect the shorelines of the Gulf Coast."

But officials and BP executives have yet to determine how to stop the spill, which industry watchers say could take many days. They re still having problems capping the well, so from an ecological standpoint, this thing hasn t peaked yet, says Darin Newsom, senior analyst at Telvent DTN. BP is trying to cover all bases the cost, how they ll settle suits but this things has some time to play out yet, he adds.

The bottom line: Obviously the main concern at this point is to try to contain the leak, writes Phil Flynn, an analyst for PFGBest. Short term the biggest impact is psychological yet the long term is not nearly as clear as this spill may set back progress for offshore drilling by decades.