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Since March the world’s stock markets have been enjoying an historic rally. After the meltdown of the world economy last fall, the financial world has been clawing its way back from oblivion. One year later it has reached a point approximate to where it went off the cliff and crashed with the demise of Lehman Brothers.

Still Selling
While stock markets might be full of exuberance, the real economy is still well up the creek and looking for its paddle. Investors think that the good times will roll in a year, which is why they are bouncing in expectation. Yet even while whole shopping malls in the US can be empty, Apple stores remain bursting at the seams with consumers.

Only One Way to Go...
In the last year there’ve been vast amounts of money pumped into the world economy and this is winching the world back from economic catastrophe. This money will flood consumers next year and is bound to be good news for Apple. If Apple can fill its stores in a retail depression, it’ll be standing room only in a boom.

Top o' the Market to You
Against this backdrop, it’s not surprising that its stock price is nearly back at all time high levels. Apple’s stock is like Apple’s gear: mesmeric. Apple is the seventh most valuable company in the S&P 500 and hence in America. In terms of company valuation as a ratio to gross sales, Apple is sixth in the top 100 of corporate giants. Apple continues to shine in the mind of investors when compared to businesses with three or four times the brute scale and that is how the market works. The market is a consumer too and it loves cool stuff.

Apple is within about 20% of the total value of Microsoft. With such momentum the only thing that will ruin the rise of Apple will be a market correction. This is likely to come in the next few months. Meanwhile can Apple become more valuable than Microsoft? It seems like this is a high probability trade.