“The View from Silicon Valley -- regarding Apple:

“As you mentioned, the price chart looks pretty overextended, but the underlying fundamentals look great. First, some of this super-fast run up was stimulated by the manure-poor job that the Wall Street "analysts" did in predicting Apple results -- any human with a brain who bothered to drop by a couple of Apple stores during the holidays and (especially) after the holidays would have noticed that the Apple stores were full of customers even when the other stores around them were empty. These people were buying stuff.

“Second, the "analysts" continue to completely miss the ongoing market share growth of Apple computers. The "analysts" are blinded by the bright lights of the cell phones and iPads, and totally miss that Apple is gradually eating away at Microsoft's monopoly, especially in laptops (which is where the profitable growth is in computers, ). Frankly, the MacBook Air laptop is rapidly becoming the must-have laptop for business travelers. Apple continues to be at least a generation ahead of the Microsoft-based computers in both laptops and desktops. Go check out their desktop with a pair of 27" monitors at your local Apple store. Fullermoney looks really good on them :).

“These "analysts" (I use the term extremely loosely) must never fly -- take any flight and count how many people are using some Apple device, and you will usually find that Apple devices outnumber all other devices combined on the airplane.

“Finally, part of the run up is due to the rumor, spread globally by the WSJ, that Apple will be announcing the iPad 3 next month. I've no clue if that is true, but that would certainly put a positive light on near-future revenues if it is true. Here in Silicon Valley, our rumor mill positions the iPad 3 as another really kick-butt product. On Wall Street, they talk of other tablets cutting into Apple's share -- out here, we think those guys are pretty funny since they are all holding iPad 2's as they talk about that, and between each of them and the TV camera is usually a MacBook Air laptop.

“The Apple strategy of a growing an ecosystem for their customers is paying off big-time -- this is a huge strategic advantage, and one that has a high barrier to entry, and makes their products ultra sticky for customers (once you become part of the Apple world, you will not want to leave).

“Additionally, Apple has focused on having the world's best customer service (both in their retail stores and in their support organization) -- not the cheapest support, but the best. They train their people exceedingly well, and really focus on having thrilled customers.

“Net net, I am expecting Apple results to be truly spectacular. They should also pass the $100 billion cash in the bank mark shortly (you have to look at both their cash/cash equivalents line and the "long term investments" line, which is actually US Treasuries, which are arguably quite liquid and probably could be sold at a significant profit versus when Apple bought them). It remains a mystery what they will do with that much cash, but buying Microsoft is probably not one of the likely choices. They are expanding their real estate holdings here in the valley, but that is all small transactions when viewed from the top of a pile of real money.

“At the same time, the parabolic move in the price, as taught in the Chart Seminar (to quote you guys :) ), is looking pretty steep. I intend to acquire more ownership on the next substantial pullback. If this stock pulls back to the 200-day MA, it may well be the most undervalued company in the market as measured by real earnings potential.

“I hope this helps the Collective :)”

Eoin Treacy's view Apple is the clear global leader in handheld devices. It continues to fight a rear guard action against upstarts in the sector such as Google, Samsung and HTC. Patent infringement lawsuits have so far been partially successful in slowing the introduction of competing products but are unlikely to deter rivals from participating in such a high growth market beyond the short term.

Apple is now 27% overextended relative to its MA following an impressive acceleration over the last month. If the medium-term uptrend, defined by a series of ranges one above another is to remain intact, then a consolidation is overdue. This bar chart of Apple's revenue by product highlights the spectacular growth evident across segments. Provided its exponential growth trajectory remains intact, investors are likely to continue to give the medium-term upside the benefit of the doubt. In the short-term a reversion towards the mean is looking increasingly likely.

Google continues to consolidate in the region of the upper side of the two-year range but needs to sustain a move above $630 to confirm a return to medium-term demand dominance.

Following an acceleration lower in November, HTC found support in the region of TWD400 and continues to unwind the oversold condition relative to the 200-day MA. A sustained move below TWD500 would break the short-term progression of higher reaction lows and check potential for some additional upside.

Following an impressive rebound from the August lows Samsung Electronics had become quite overextended by late January. It posted a large weekly key reversal three weeks ago and some consolidation of recent powerful gains appears more likely than not.