NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Inc’s market capitalization crossed $3 trillion in early trading on Tuesday, before falling back, after the world’s most valuable company briefly hit that important barrier the day before.
Shares of the iPhone manufacturer rose to as much as $182.94, after settling at $182.63 at the opening. Shares need to close above $182.86 to achieve that record level.
Apple contracts ranked second after Tesla in terms of the most traded US stock options today, according to data from Options Clearing.
Apple accounts for about seven percent of the S&P 500 index’s value, according to Refinitiv data, the highest for a single share in the index when the benchmark is at its peak.
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The Corona virus pandemic led to an increase in demand for iPhones, MacBooks and iPads, which helped raise the market value of the company to more than two trillion dollars in August 2020 and then an additional trillion after 16 months.
“Apple has been one of the most publicly traded companies during the pandemic,” said Edward Moya, chief market analyst at Oanda in New York. But as we get out of it…the iPhone maker will struggle a bit.”
“The next big achievement in production is not coming soon,” he added. It will be very difficult for Apple to get to four and five trillion as it did in the transition from two trillion to three.”
Apple plans to expand into categories such as self-driving cars and augmented reality, as it looks to reduce its reliance on the best-selling iPhone, which makes up more than half of its revenue.
After its market value exceeded the three trillion dollar barrier, Apple left Microsoft alone in the two trillion dollar club before returning to it at the end of trading.
Microsoft’s market capitalization is currently around $2.5 trillion. Alphabet, which owns Google, Amazon and Tesla, has crossed the $1 trillion mark. The Saudi oil company, Aramco, is worth about $1.9 trillion, according to Refinitiv data.
Apple shares have jumped about 5800 percent since its co-founder and late CEO Steve Jobs announced the first version of the iPhone in January 2007, outperforming the S&P 500’s gains of about 230 percent during the same period.
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