Apple’s ups and downs continue to set the tone for U.S. stocks. On Friday, the broad averages remained moderately buoyant because bears were afraid to lay out shorts ahead of yesterday’s earnings announcement from AAPL. The effect diminished in the hours leading up to the announcement, with stocks selling off mildly into the regular-session close. The earnings turned out to be quite good and included a big share-buyback, but the stock’s response was relatively subdued. My hunch is that this will be seen by bears as a ding-dong-the-wicked-witch-is-dead moment, and that they will hit stocks hard on Tuesday if Apple fails to make more headway. If it does, however, Hidden Pivot Analysis suggests it could run up to as high as 139.09. This would still be a tad shy of a very major target at 143.97 target that has kept us properly bullish for some time.
