AAPL Tests NVDA for Most Valuable Company After Analyst Upgrade

back on Morning Trade Live. Let's focus on Apple's chart. It's been remarkable. In the last few weeks. Shares are up about 15% in July. It hit a new all time high yesterday. We were higher this morning. In fact, we're ahead of record this morning actually before retreating. As you can see here losing some momentum we leapfrogged Nvidia. We're back behind Nvidia once again. It was short lived at the top but who knows. Anything can happen. Apple's been getting a lot of praise recently. Obviously it's been reflected in the share price. Many of the street analysts thinking that maybe they'll start to get this next cycle right. Obviously it's starting to make some moves in China around finding alternative sources for memory as well. According to reports, it just got the green light for Apple intelligence over there that's helped the Chinese 80 hours. So plenty going on with Apple. But it did receive an upgrade this morning. So that's the focus of the morning trade. Joining us now for a closer look at this note is Jenny Horn. Good morning Jenny. Just walk us through what the analysts had to say today. Yeah. I mean there's definitely still some some enthusiasm when it comes to Apple. I know as you mentioned, we've sort of teetered back and forth between I mean still what has been a relatively stronger session than the overall market as Apple is still right now ever so modestly higher, touching a new all time high today, as you mentioned, at 33499 share. And so hitting an all time high yesterday. And we're continuing to see this really divergence between Apple versus the rest of the true hyperscalers. But HSBC with some bullish commentary upgrading shares of Apple to buy from hold with a price target that was raised substantially so to 366 from 260. So obviously much closer to where share prices have appreciated to just over the last, I mean, two or so weeks. But the firm does believe that Apple is now at an operational turning point, saying that Apple can stay away from the high cap debate, as it only invests roughly 2.5% of its 2026 sales, versus the roughly 39% for hyperscalers also positions it well to leverage its $2.5 billion installed device base with its forthcoming revamped Apple Intelligence. But the AI boost comes right at the. It comes at the right moment, per HSBC, when Apple has one of the most innovative product pipelines in place, they view Apple's hardware pipeline as really solid, which includes things like their 18 Pro Pro Max this upcoming fall, as well as an iPhone AR that was launched, are expected to be launched in April of 2027. And more importantly, a book style foldable phone which I've yet to see full details on. But I am very enticed by the concept of going back to the foldable phones, as when I had experience with the foldable phone Sam, they were not the most durable. We'll have to see obviously, what that ends up looking like, but the resilience of Apple has been astounding. And you've seen this name trade at a. I mean, the furthest correlation away from like the Nasdaq 100 that we've seen in years. And I think that for so long it's been its greatest criticism that now has actually been its point of strength, because it's really separated itself from the broader AI spend story. And for that reason doesn't have the same seems like implications right now to prove itself in the world of AI. Obviously what matters to them still is going to be its its hardware. The fact that it's seeing a new iPhone lineup coming in just a few months. But earnings will be a critical test if you do get them at the end of this month on July 30th. And will, I mean, hopefully get an update on pricing strategy? That's the only real looming concern, it seems like amongst analysts that do still skew I mean, relatively favorably on this name, but it's not overwhelming. And so maybe an opportunity is HSBC saying it's really done a great job somewhat separating itself from these hyperscalers. And there's numbers to back that with just, again, 2.5% of its sales being pushed towards this, this real further monetization of AI. And so it's an interesting call. And we've seen really analysts get back on board with Apple, but still it's roughly 60 to 65% of analysts that do see a buy or strong buy equivalent, relatively smaller than, say, like an Nvidia, but perhaps working to its favor, maybe a lower bar as we approach this earnings event. Yeah. Look, Jenny, I have a toddler, so there's no way a foldable phone will ever be found in my household unless it's a fake one. But yeah, I know I've seen a lot of people actually going back to like the old, I don't know if it's a Motorola or they just don't want the new fancy smartphones. They've been going back to the old stuff as well. And you see them sort of walking around. It's interesting trend, but thank you so much for the details on HSBC's note today. We are trading flat on Apple right now, so let's trade it now with Dan Deming, managing partner at JM financial. Happy Friday to you, Dan. How would you approach this name for example purposes? Yeah. You know this breakout is impressive Sam and it's Jenny pointed out that some of the counter metrics of Apple relative to the overall tech, you know, space is something I think that's a differentiator as well. And it's viewed as a positive moving forward. I think, you know the trend is your friend. And certainly it does appear that they've positioned themselves well as they continue to weather this kind of downward cycle and some of the other areas in the tech sector. So today's trade example is to capture upside, but give a little bit of a zone. If we do see a little weakness to possibly buy the stock at a better level. So today the trade example is buying an August 3rd 353 50 call spread and then selling an August 3rd 15 put below the market. And basically what that does is cover the cost of your call spread. So you get to capture anything above basically 335 to the 350 mark over the next month. If we see some weakness though, you would get put in the stock down around that 315 level, which I find from a technical standpoint, there's some support at that level. Okay, good. Look at Apple as you say, impressive breakout. Let's see if it can manage to claw back some gains here as we close out the session for this week. But it's been nothing short of a pretty good run here for Apple this week.