AAPL Sucks, but It's Still Going to at Least $242

Because Apple’s story has grown dull as dirt, it is appropriate that we focus on the company’s shares as a key bull-market bellwether. Portfolio managers are surely aware that iPhone sales are weakening and that the Cupertino giant has lost its way as an innovator. Nor can any of them be excited by Apple’s belated move into streaming content (competing as a discounter, it would appear).  And yet, institutional investors seem to have no qualms about throwing vast quantities of Other People’s Money at AAPL to keep it buoyant, and about buying dips that they themselves have engineered.

A Lazy Bull

This is a lazy way to keep the bull market going, and it is why we should be skeptical of very uptick. However, my current outlook says AAPL is headed at least 10% higher, to exactly 242.48. If this prediction proves correct it would mean the Dow and the S&Ps are going higher as well, even if not as steeply. Notice in the chart that the stock impaled the red line last week on the way up. That’s what I call a midpoint Hidden Pivot, and when it is trashed on first contact as occurred here, one can infer with confidence that the ‘D’  target of the pattern — in this case 242.48 — will be reached.

This is hard to believe, given that housing, autos, manufacturing and maybe even consumer spending have peaked.  I’ll put aside my gut feeling for now, though, and go with the charts, since they have rarely failed me.