Since my last take on Apple Inc (Nasdaq: AAPL) on March 14th here ( http://investorplace.com/2013/03/apple-looks-ready-to-pop/ ) the stock has acted as the analysis suggested, which was to move past resistance and pop higher. Now, roughly 6.50% higher and as the stock is inching up towards a next band of resistance let’s review the charts.
The quiet sideways action that I discussed earlier this month led to a stair-step higher by first breaking the down-trend line dating back to the September 2012 highs. After a few days of basing above the downtrend and just under the stock’s 50 day simple moving average, the stock made another push higher on Friday March 22nd that broke the 50 day. From here, while the stock is immediate term overbought if we look at the Stochastics momentum oscillator, the next upside target is another 4.00% higher.
To gain better perspective on the next area of resistance as well as support, let’s zoom in on the daily chart. In the immediate term of a couple of days I would like to see the stock hold near/above its 50 day simple moving average near $458. Below there the next area of support is $450 and one that should really hold if the breakout past the October down-trend line wants to bounce the stock somewhat further in the near-term.
On the upside the highs from February 11th are in focus. The target level is $485 and any move past there on a daily closing basis could setup for the second target. This next level higher is the top of the down-gap from January 24th as it remains an attraction point. This second target is at $514, although if Apple Inc (Nasdaq: AAPL) gets to $510 I would consider this target to have been hit.
All in all Apple Inc (Nasdaq: AAPL) continues to trade constructive enough that at least the the $485 level has a good chance of being reached within the coming one to two weeks. Should the stock get to the second target around $510 it would have managed to crawl past the $500 mark where plenty of desperate funds are waiting to dump at least some stock for ‘smaller ‘losses.
