If we take the liberty to draw in the aftermarket, post-earnings spike in Apple (AAPL) to a new all-time high at 99.48, followed by a plunge to 93.25 (close 93.99), notice what we are left with.  We have a key downside reversal bar off of marginal new highs. The vast majority of the time, such a reversal spike signals a near-term trend change, which in this case, would argue that AAPL has ended its most recent upleg off of the December 27 pivot low at 76.77, and either will carve out a sideways range (between 97.00 and 90.00 for instance) for the next 2-3 weeks, or embark on a stair-step downside corrective process that points towards an 80 target zone. In both cases, the uptrend will be transcended into either a sideways trend, or a near-term corrective downtrend. The bottom line is that although AAPL might attempt another rally, the overall technical picture argues that a significant near-term peak has been established, in the aftermath to the earnings news.

Mike Paulenoff is a 26-year veteran of the financial markets and author of MPTrader.com, a real-time diary of his technical chart analysis and trading alerts on all major markets. For more of Mike Paulenoff, sign up for a free 15-Day trial to his MPTrader Diary by clicking here.