Apple closed at a record high on Friday; hits all-time intraday high today

On Friday, January 6, Apple stock quietly achieved a milestone by closing at an all-time record high price of US$422.40 per share. Even better, the stock has just passed an all-time intraday high (it was at $427.75 earlier this morning). That puts the company's market capitalization tantalizingly near $400 billion.

That's not the highest price the stock has ever reached. On October 17th, Apple's stock reached an intraday high of $426.70, but closed lower. During the months of October and November the share prices tumbled, along with the rest of the market, but AAPL has seen a remarkable recovery in the last month.

Much of this boom in the share price appears to be a run-up to Apple's quarterly earnings announcement on January 24, according to Fortune's Philip Elmer-DeWitt. That announcement, which covers the all-important Christmas quarter, is expected to be chock-full of good news from Cupertino.

[Chart generated by AOL DailyFinance.com]