Apple (AAPL) Stock Price Analysis: Worst Start to the Year Since 2008

On 27 December, while analysing Apple (AAPL) stock, we noted: “Traders should consider the possibility of a pullback below the key psychological level of $250, with the price potentially retreating to the lower purple boundary.”

A month later, Bloomberg reports:

→ By the close of trading on Friday, 24 January, the company’s shares had fallen 11% since the start of 2025, marking the worst performance among the “Big Seven” companies.

→ This represents the worst start for AAPL shares since 2008, when the global financial crisis was in full swing.

→ Apple has also significantly underperformed the S&P 500, which has risen approximately 3.7% this year and hit a new record high earlier this week.

Can the bulls reverse this disappointing trend?

Technical Analysis of the AAPL chart shows:

→ The price remains within a broad ascending channel (which began in June when the company unveiled its Apple Intelligence tools), but it has now fallen into the lower half of the channel.

→ After briefly dipping below the November low at $219.50, the price recovered – a bullish sign of a Liquidity Grab, suggesting that Smart Money may be turning bullish.

Given this, it is reasonable to expect the downward trend to weaken, with market participants likely adopting a wait-and-see approach ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings report, scheduled for 30 January.

Wall Street analysts are optimistic, forecasting earnings of $2.35 per share and gross revenue of $124.2 billion (compared to $0.97 per share and $94.93 billion in the previous quarter).