Apple Stock Price and Forecast: AAPL still could reach $200 by year end

After a freaky Friday, it was back to business as usual on Monday with equity markets putting in a solid start to the week. All those rookie traders who panicked on Friday were likely given a stern rebuke from returning senior traders who know that this market in 2021 is a one-way bet. That is thanks to the flow of money from the Fed juicing markets, a huge earnings potential from mega tech names and now a large buyback season as companies are past earnings blackouts.
That is certainly what happened on Monday as volumes returned from Friday's reduced levels and markets got back to rallying. Goldman Sachs had said it does not see Omicron as a risk, and the South Africans appear to see this as an overreaction, with cases being reported as mild so far. Hopefully, this plays out to be true, but while it is hard to derail this 2021 bull, we could be in for some volatile weeks ahead.
We await more concrete evidence on how sales look for Black Friday/Cyber Monday, but initial reports were not positive with overall online sales down on previous years. Wedbush though sees Apple selling 10 million iPhones over the Thanksgiving weekend and predicts 40 million iPhone sales between now and Christmas. It should be noted Wedbush is strongly bullish on Apple. They have been largely correct with that stance. Apple did receive some good news yesterday in the form of a price target raise from HSBC. Apart from that, it was relatively calm on the news front.
AAPL stock really needs to break above $162 to hold Monday's gains and push on. Above there, volume thins out, so a move to all-time highs should be achievable. Failure though will likely see a move lower to $150. Volume is light until then apart from a slight spike with support at $157.
AAPL 30-minute chart
The daily chart shows the strong trend intact and the $157 support. Large volume support sits at $148.
AAPL 1-day chart