Since my last take on Apple (NASDAQ:) on March 14, the stock has acted as the analysis suggested, which was to move past resistance and pop higher. With AAPL roughly 6.5% more in the black and inching toward a new 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 downtrend 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 Friday 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% 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 next couple days, I would like to see the stock hold near/above its 50-day SMA near $458. Below there, the next area of support is $450 — that’s one that should really hold if the breakout past the October downtrend line wants to bounce the stock somewhat further in the near-term.
On the upside, the highs from Feb. 11 are in focus. The target level is $485, and any move past there on a daily closing basis could set up for the second target. This next level higher is the top of the down-gap from Jan. 24 as it remains an attraction point. This second target is at $514, although if AAPL gets to $510, I would consider this target to have been hit.
All in all, Apple continues to trade constructively 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.
Serge Berger is the head trader and investment strategist for . Sign up for his .
