New Sheriff In Town:
Microsoft made a statement this week becoming the largest company on earth, although here it still shows AAPL as the top dog. Either way, momentum has been on MSFT’s side with a one-year advance of 63%, and over the last 3 months has gained 19%. Compare that to Apple which is up a respectable 39% over the last year but has lagged Mr. Softee up just 3% during the last 3 months. MSFT will carry a lot of weight as its strength now makes it the top holding in the XLK, (second largest in the QQQ by a fraction), and remember that the DOW is a PRICE-weighted index, and Microsoft is the second highest-priced name in the Dow besides UNH, so it will have a big impact. The stock trades just 1% off all-time highs, with AAPL 7% off its own, and on its daily chart notice the stock CLOSING at highs for the daily range 4 out of 5 times last week and with the break above a cup base pivot of 384.40 it also negated the bearish dark cloud cover from 11/29. Late last week recorded its first bullish MACD crossover since early October which witnessed the stock register a nice PRICE run soon thereafter.