Apple is just too profitable for its shares to go to hell, so the question is, how long might they linger in purgatory? That could be as bad as it gets for this stock, currently trading 9% below April’s all-time high of 644. Even at low ebb of the correction since then, AAPL was down just 17% , a tad less than the accepted bear-market threshold of 20%.
Under the circumstances, we should give AAPL every possible benefit of the doubt, technically speaking. From a Hidden Pivot standpoint, all it would take to put bulls back on the offensive would be a relatively modest push to 591.41. That would create a robustly bullish impulse leg on the hourly chart, something the stock has failed to do in two attempts since early June. I’ve set a screen alert there, but so should you, since a bullish breakout would have bullish implications for the stock market as a whole. More immediately, the lesser charts are predicting a finishing stroke to Friday’s rally that will hit 586.22, at least. If that Hidden Pivot is easily brushed aside, however, it would shorten the odds of a push past 591.40. _______ UPDATE (July 3, 3:06 a.m. EDT): The stock did everything we asked of it yesterday, not only surpassing the prior peak at 591.42, but closing above it. This is bullish for the broad averages, as noted above, and it also makes a pullback from these levels a ‘buy’. The move would be even more bullish if it goes on to exceed yet another ‘external’ at 596.76 without correcting in B-C fashion on the intraday charts. Most bullish of all would be a continuation of the rally past the key ‘external’ peak at 618.00 recorded on April 25. That would turn the daily chart impulsively bullish and set the stock on course for a run at new record highs. The price points just noted are highlighted in the fresh chart accompanying this tout.