The stories that Wall Street has been floating to prop up this gas-bag in order to distribute it get more pathetic by the month. The latest is that Apple will have an automobile in the showrooms by 2019. It’s bad enough that the company has jumped into the streaming music business 12 years after Spotify pioneered it. But in this case, the Cupertino purveyor of luxury consumer electronics will be a hundred-and-twelve years behind Ford Motor Company’s revolutionary assembly line.

The joke used to be that if Microsoft made cars, they would crash twice a day and flash the warning “This car has performed an illegal operation” whenever something went wrong. No doubt, Apple can build a much better car than anything we might expect from Ballmer & Co. (albeit with a fully-charged battery that might power a motorist only to the grocery store and back). The question is, at what price? Apple’s cult of buyers, notoriously oblivious to consumer-goods price points, have gotten used to paying up for laptops, cell phones, wristwatches, accessories and such. But when they’re shopping for basic transportation, will they pay two to three times the going price for an iCar? Perhaps we’re wrong and the company has something truly revolutionary in mind. If so, let it be a car produced in the U.S. at a price that even the Koreans can’t beat. Now that would be revolutionary.

For the time being, however, we will continue to view the rally from the August 24 low as prelude to another big leg down.  If so, once the 108.50 ‘trigger’ is hit (see inset), the weakness could continue all the way 82.18 (see inset). Along the way, and assuming the stock doesn’t first head-fake above 117.27, a key test will come at 99.73, a midpoint Hidden Pivot that can serve for now as our minimum downside objective.  If the stock breaches the support by more than 1.20, or closes beneath it for two consecutive days, the p2 pivot at 90.95 would become our new minimum target. ______ UPDATE (September 28, 11:03): The thimble riggers who manipulate this stock for a living have done a quite creditable job keeping it stable when the broad averages were getting schmeissed. This suggests they aim to take it higher if and when the stock market turns buoyant. More immediately, if AAPL follows shares lower today, look for a rally attempt at 111.74; or failing that, at 111.04.  Either of these Hidden Pivot supports can be bottom-fished with a stop-loss as tight as you want to make it. To find them on the 30-minute chart, use a=115.24 on 9:25 at 4:00 p.m. _______ UPDATE (September 30, 1:10 a.m.): Apple shocked yesterday by crushing both of the Hidden pivot supports given above on the way to a 107.86 intraday low. This implies the sleazeballs who control the stock are having trouble distributing it ahead of the next swoon.  It is weaker than I had imagined.