It’s not your imagination — even ostensibly “exciting” stocks have been screwing the pooch since spring. Apple, for one.  In recent weeks, it has been one of DaBoyz’ favorite con-jobs because of a signal-reception problem in the iPhone4. When news reports concerning the product’s poorly designed antenna maxed out a little more than a week ago, it looked like a major corporate blunder. We don’t mean the kind of blunder that would ultimately affect the bottom line more than a jiggle or a jot; rather, the story provided a perfect excuse for institutional buyers to shake the stock down so that they could steal it at fire-sale prices from widows and orphans. The last time AAPL was manipulated in this way, it was a riskier bet, since the story that was used to move the stock up and down concerned Steve Jobs’ health. Reports of his battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer first surfaced in 2004, but the prognosis – and the stock itself – were subject to wild swings until last summer, when he underwent an evidently successful liver transplant. The procedure quieted the rumor mill, allowing AAPL to waft higher on its merits. Now the same institutional arse-bandits have milked the antenna story for all it’s worth, and we can hardly wait to see what ploy they concoct next to make the nervous Nellies doubt anew that Apple’s future is any less than stellar.

As you can see in the graph, however, the company’s shares have gone nowhere since April. For all the sound and fury, AAPL has been in a holding pattern since then, albeit one with the potential to provide a base for a thrust to $300 and beyond. The fact that all of the price action has occurred above the midpoint of the May 6 Flash Crash makes it look convincingly like consolidation. The broad averages have been in a similar state of arrest, although nearly all of the action has taken place below the halfway line of the May 6 Flash Crash. Looks like distribution, we’d say.  So, how is this divergence likely to be resolved? Our guess is that the indexes will eventually pull Apple down rather than the other way around. But it wouldn’t surprise us if this occurs after the Cupertino firm’s shares have taken one last, magnificent leap, with the Dow and S&Ps following (very) meekly along.  But don’t get your hopes up that this break in the tedium will occur before autumn. The market can remain boring for much longer than most investors can remain sane.

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