Apple's $AAPL highly anticipated Q3 earnings report (fiscal Q4 for AAPL) disappointed. Many believed a positive report could save the market from further pain. While earnings beat estimates, guidance was light and its all about guidance. With the earnings reported after-hours, AAPL was down 7% before the 11/2 session. Here's an excerpt of the earnings report from BusinessWire.com Revenue Up 20 Percent and EPS Up 41 Percent to New September Quarter RecordsServices Revenue of $10 Billion Reaches New All-Time High ... The Company posted quarterly revenue of $62.9 billion, an increase of 20 percent from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.91, up 41 percent. International sales accounted for 61 percent of the quarter’s revenue. Services revenue reached an all-time high of $10 billion. Excluding a one-time favorable adjustment of $640 million recognized in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, Services revenue grew from $7.9 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 to $10 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018, an increase of 27 percent. “We’re thrilled to report another record-breaking quarter that caps a tremendous fiscal 2018, the year in which we shipped our 2 billionth iOS device, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the App Store and achieved the strongest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Over the past two months, we’ve delivered huge advancements for our customers through new versions of iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac as well as our four operating systems, and we enter the holiday season with our strongest lineup of products and services ever.” “We concluded a record year with our best September quarter ever, growing double digits in every geographic segment. We set September quarter revenue records for iPhone and Wearables and all-time quarterly records for Services and Mac,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We generated $19.5 billion in operating cash flow and returned over $23 billion to shareholders in dividends and share repurchases in the September quarter, bringing total capital returned in fiscal 2018 to almost $90 billion.” Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2019 first quarter: • revenue between $89 billion and $93 billion • gross margin between 38 percent and 38.5 percent • operating expenses between $8.7 billion and $8.8 billion • other income/(expense) of $300 million • tax rate of approximately 16.5 percent before discrete items ... (BusinessWire.com) AAPL Daily Chart (click to enlarge) Price Top:- It should be noted that even before this week's earnings report, AAPL was topping.- A break below $215 a share was the key price action that completed the price top.- Then, there was a rebound ahead of earnings, which was completely faded after the release.Bullish:- AAPL has been pretty resilient throughout the recent month of equities contraction. - Looking at the daily chart, we can see that it has been consolidating sideways for the most part.- But we should now expect at least some short-term bearish correction.- The thing is, this is still within the long-term bull trend. After all, the earnings report wasn't THAT bad.Support:- If price retreats further, we should anticipate support in the $195-$200 area. - $195 was a previous resistance pivot that could turn into support if AAPL is indeed going to maintain its 2018 bullish trend into 2019.- Also note that the 200-day simple moving average (SMA) will be pushing up against $195 if price comes down here. Price has not spent much time below the 200-day SMA, so we should anticipate support around it. Potential Bearish Signs:- If on subsequent bounces, price fail to clear above $224 (October resistance pivot), then we might have a more significant correction, not just in price but in terms of time.- A break below $190 in combination with resistance around $220 would also signal further correction towards $180 and possibly lower. - More importantly, this would signal a protracted period of consolidation in 2019. - In this scenario, we should brace for a period of consolidation similar to year and half in 2015 through half of 2016, or the 1-year consolidation of Sept. 2012 to Sept. 2013.- Also note that in these consolidation periods, price came down to the 200-week SMA. This means we should not be surprised if price makes it down to $150. Summary:- A mini consolidation in the short-term has the $195-$200 area in sight.- However, resistance at $220 would signal a more significant consolidation or correction in the medium-term.- In this latter scenario, we have downside conservatively to $180 and aggressively to $150. - The short-term outlook is essentially for Q4 2018.- The medium-term outlook could be half a year (mid-2019) up to almost two years (by 2020 Election year for example). AAPl Weekly Chart (click to enlarge)