Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is a company and stock everybody knows and follows, and it carries a 1.9% weighting in the S&P 500, which is precisely why it is worth watching closely.

Case in point, Tuesday’s announcement that Steve Jobs will hold the keynote address at next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference was all over the news and gave the stock a nice pop, although it fell with the rest of the market on Wednesday.

On a two-year weekly chart we see a clear uptrend channel that is very much still in place as AAPL currently trades smack in the middle of the channel.

Zooming in closer on a daily chart, the downtrend resistance becomes apparent. After putting in an all-time high on Feb. 16, Apple has had a fairly volatile sideways consolidation period, and more importantly, one that looks to resolve itself soon in either direction.

This downtrend line currently comes in just around $350 and gives us a clear risk/reward setup. The setup would trigger on a solid daily close above the $350 level. A final profit target on the long side would be near the highs of February, and a clearly defined stop-loss could be placed just a smidge below the 50-day moving average (yellow line).

The potential trade setup (if and when triggered) is interesting in and of itself. However, I am just as interested in closely monitoring how AAPL trades as a proxy for the broader tape.