PreMarket Prep Stock Of The Day: Apple

Benzinga's PreMarket Prep airs every morning from 8-9 a.m. ET. During that fast-paced, highly informative hour, traders and investors tune in to get the major news of the day, the catalysts behind those moves and the corresponding price action for the upcoming session.

On any given day, the show will cover at least 20 stocks determined by co-hosts Joel Elconin and Dennis Dick along with producer Spencer Israel.

Good news is good news, sometimes bad news is good news, and old news can be good news. The last part of the statement above applies to Apple Inc. AAPL, which is the PreMarket Prep Stock Of The Day.

Six Years In The Making: Project Titan has been in existence since 2014. Several of the company’s employees and a substantial amount of the companies resources have been devoted to the effort. But over the years for a variety of different reasons, Apple hasn't produced a car.

In June 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook teased shareholders when he provided an update on the progress being made by the company in that area. Cook acknowledged the company was researching autonomous driving software, which confirmed speculation it was testing vehicles on public roads.

Bump In The Road: It appeared in January 2018 that the company was scaling back on its efforts when 200 employees were eliminated from the project. However later that year the company, in a rare move, acquired Drive. Through the acquisition of the self-driving vehicle startup, Apple not only took ownership of its self-driving shuttle service but hired several key employees to bolster its current staff.

Full Steam Ahead: Just after 3:30 p.m. ET on Monday, it was reported Apple was targeting electric car production as early as 2024. Also, it was researching "monocell" battery design that could reduce cost and increase vehicle range. The battery it's planning to use, Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery Chemistry was less likely to overheat.

As expected, Apple caught a strong bid off the news and closed just off its high for the session at $128.23.

Follow Through: Apple continued to rally in the after-hours sessions, ending that session at $130.63. Premarket buyers seized on the issue and it was trading at the $132 area when it was being covered on the show.

"I am surprised that Tesla is not getting hammered on this," Dick said. "When Apple gets into something, you know it is going to be awesome."

It should be noted the was a delayed reaction in Tesla Inc. TSLA and as of 12 p.m. is deep in the red by 3.5% at $626.84.

Short-Term Technicals: The author of this noted article there was limited daily resistance in Apple above its premarket high ($132.50). The only other reference point was its all-time closing high price from Sept. 9 at $134.18.

After a higher open it had a brief retreat to $130.49, before blasting to $134.41 and reversed course. The ensuing decline took the issue to an intraday low of $129.65 as of 12 p.m. ET.

Disclaimer: Both co-hosts are long shares of Apple.