The day Apple gave U.S. traders to digest the news of Steve Jobs medical leave seems to have tempered Wall Street’s reaction. In early trading Tuesday, Apple (AAPL) shares fell $22.48 (6.5%) from their all time high of $348.48 before starting to recover.

In the Frankfurt exchange, by contrast, shares plummeted 9.7% before they bottomed out and began to bounce back, closing down 6.1% for the day.

The stock continued to recover in Europe. By the time the markets opened in New York, the stock had regained nearly half the ground in Frankfurt that it lost the day before.

It didn’t hurt, of course, that Apple is expected to report record earnings after the markets close today.

The stock closed in New York at $340.65, down $7.83 (2.25%) for the day. It could have been a lot worse.

See also:

• Apple’s Q1 2011 earnings preview
• A new kind of whisper number
• Apple jerks our chains
• Thinking the unthinkable: Apple without Steve Jobs

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]