Apple Criticism Creates Chart Alert

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has lost its mojo, even if it may just be temporary. Bearish comments from advisory and market pundit Doug Kass have met slightly lowered iPhone sales estimates from Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster. While Munster remains very bullish on Apple shares, the chart may be creating more concern when you consider how much Apple has run up.

As far as the chart is concerned, Apple’s 50-day moving average was violated on Friday. This may or may not hold but technicians will be watching this closely. The 50-day moving average is $656.33 today and so far the intraday low was $652.77. For whatever this is worth, Apple shares are currently just above the 50-day moving average (see chart from stockcharts.com below) since shares are at $657.00 but that is still a drop of about 1.4% on the day.

Another issue came out this week and that is that options in Apple became skewed to the bearish side with higher put options volume. Bloomberg highlighted this options event during the week. We have also heard more vocal criticism this week about the leadership role of Tim Cook now that Steve Jobs has been gone for a year.

Before the panic button gets hit too hard, it is important to recognize a few issues. Most moving average analysis on Apple stock charts have tended to act as support rather than resistance. The consensus analyst price target from Thomson Reuters is currently over $778 and that is well over $100 higher than today.

JON C. OGG