Apple has regained the throne as the world’s most valuable company as the tech giant closes in on a historic $4 trillion market capitalization.

Despite a lackluster start for the stock earlier this year, Apple returned to its former glory and is back to outpacing the major US indexes. After a series of higher highs, Apple shares are now breaking out to new all-time highs in December as the iPhone maker benefits from continued strength in the large-cap tech space. The bullish theme around artificial intelligence certainly hasn’t hurt either.

Following a better than 30% surge in 2024, is Apple stock now too far extended, or is the rally just getting underway?

Purchasing stocks at new all-time highs has proven to be successful in the past. It’s the market’s way of telling us that higher prices are on the horizon.

And when we analyze the state of the economy with a lower underlying trend in inflation, better-than-expected corporate earnings, and a resilient U.S. consumer, there’s plenty of reasons to suspect that the momentum can continue.

The major indices pulled back last week while volatility spiked to levels not seen since the early August sell-off. But Apple stock was undeterred, gliding through the volatility gracefully and even ending the week at an all-time high:

Image Source: StockCharts

The fact that Apple shares witnessed limited selling last week signals heavy institutional buying pressure. Stocks that hold up best through periods of volatility tend to lead the charge once the general market resumes its uptrend.

Apple AAPL is engaged in the designing, manufacturing, and marketing of mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Apple’s well-known products include the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV, along with its software applications like iOS and the MAC OS X operating systems.

In addition to the sales generated from the devices mentioned above, Apple’s business contains a Services segment that includes revenues from cloud services, the App Store, Apple Music, AppleCare, Apple Pay, as well as other licensing services that have become a major cash cow. Apple currently has more than 1 billion paid subscribers across the Services portfolio.

If that all wasn’t enough, Apple dominates the Wearables market as consumers continue to adopt products like the AirPods and Apple Watch. Apple has made significant headway in this area, strengthening its presence in the personal health monitoring space. Other services include Apple News+, Apple Card, and Apple Arcade.