Apple's shares continue upward

Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) had a big day yesterday, seeing its shares rise $2.91 to close at $89.05 after Morgan Stanley's Rebecca Runkle lifted her target price to $110 from $90. She also raised her 2007 earnings outlook to $3.13 a share from $2.58. On top of this, Mad Money's Jim Cramer was very bullish on tech stocks, briefly noting that he sees Apple going all the way to $120.

Runkle based her upgrade on the fact that "new products introduced in January and less exposure to Microsoft's Vista OS launch could help reduce seasonal risk to Apple's shares." With the annual Macworld show fast approaching in early January, Mac fans everywhere are waiting for Jobs' legendary announcements. Will it be the iPhone or maybe iTV, or perhaps both? We will just have to wait and see as Apple's keeping it close to the vest.

In the meantime, iPod sales don't seem to be slowing with forecasts of as many as 16 million iPod sales, up from 14 million a year ago. Although some have predicted a slowing of sales in the company's iTunes music store, Piper Jaffray analyst, Gene Munster, said that such fears have been overstated. Dallas Mavericks Owner, Mark Cuban, gave his opinion about not only the speculation involving iTunes sales, but also Zune sales. Surprisingly, he wrote, "What there hasn't been much of, is speculation of what might happen if Google entered this market?"

Nonetheless, it seems as if Apple's stock is heading upwards, even after the huge holiday season, in anticipation of the Macworld show. Personally, I'd say we won't see AAPL fall back into the 50s like it did after last year's holiday season.