Apple’s Big Rally Gives Stock Bulls Something to Cheer About

$Apple (AAPL.US)$ The world’s most valuable company has the biggest influence in the S&P 500 Index and its participation in the market-capitalization weighted benchmark is essential to any sustainable rally. Apple shares beat the S&P for a ninth-consecutive week and have helped fuel a 22% rebound in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 from a June low.
Like the broader market, risks to Apple’s ascent abound. Inflation is weighing on consumers while China’s stringent Covid-19 policies pose a lingering threat to its supply chains. While Apple has reportedly asked suppliers to maintain last year’s pace of iPhone production, some of Apple’s suppliers are sounding alarms over a pullback in demand.
$Micron Technology (MU.US)$ this week warned that sales in the current quarter are expected to be weaker than it expected when the maker of memory chips gave its forecast less than six weeks ago. That followed disappointing revenue projections from $Qualcomm (QCOM.US)$ , $Intel (INTC.US)$ and $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ .