“A sharp sell-off on the broad market Wednesday took down the entire tech sector, which pretty much gave up the previous session’s gains by the closing bell,” Benjamin Pimentel reports for MarketWatch.
“The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA shed 4.6% to close at 10,720 — making for the third session this month for the key index to fall more than 500 points,” Pimentel reports. “The S&P 500 slid by 4.4% to close near 1,121 as global markets continued to struggle with signs of increasing instability. The Nasdaq fell more than 4% to close at 2,381, with the Morgan Stanley High-Tech Index off by 4.3% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down 2% by the close.”
Pimentel reports, “Large-cap tech shares fell across the board. Those who lost more than 5% by the end of the session included: Hewlett-Packard Co., Microsoft Corp., Dell and Amazon.com. Intel Corp. and IBM Corp. also posted sizeable losses by the close. Apple Inc. closed down about 2.8%, but managed to end the session with a higher market cap than oil giant Exxon Mobil, which has been for years the most valuable company in the world based on market cap.”
Read more in the full article here.
I just came here to give a mention for Mike Dell. It somehow seems appropriate.
Dell? He should sell the company and give the money back to the investors… who will probably turn around and purchase stock in Apple. 🙂
Speaking of Michael Dumbwitt, he’s awfully quiet. 😉
When AAPL passed MSFT in market cap (not so long ago), Steve Jobs commented with one word: surreal.
Today’s AAPL becoming the biggest company in the world (based on market cap) seems the same surreal, but to the power of 10.
Most of the financial experts are having a hard time wrapping their mind around the new reality. Same thing can be probably said about people who work at Apple, as well as for us, users of their products/services.
And let us not forget; XOM (Exxon-Mobile) no longer has space to grow, while Apple has market share to take away and unexplored markets to grow in, not to mention new possible markets it just may invent (like the tablet market it invented barely a year ago).
XOM is continuing to drill for oil and gas and can also grow through refining and diversification into alternative energy sources, etc.
it’s great that Apple has a high market cap. The company is doing things right and actually deserves to be valued even more highly. Unlike some companies that temporarily enjoyed an inflated market cap during a stock bubble, Apple is achieving this feat during a massive and extended recession. Amazing…but it is just a market cap. At the end of the day it primarily only matters to investors. It doesn’t help Apple unless they plan to issue stock for an acquisition, or to raise capital. And with ~$76B on hand, who needs to do that?!
@Predrag: …like the tablet market it invented barely a year ago…
Isn’t it more a case of the tablet market it redefined, reinvented, and salvaged from the botched job Microsoft (and its cronies like Toshiba, HP et al) made of it over the previous nine years? Like, nine years of Bill Gates harping on about how Windows and stylus are the true way to go with a tablet?
Also, if I remember correctly, didn’t Steve Balmer try his damdest at CES2010 to usurp SJ’s siesmic iPad keynote a week later, as he strutted about the podium holding up (what is now a still-born) HP tablet?
So do please give full credit for the botched job to those that created it in the first place: M$ et al…
While I would have rather seen it due to growth as opposed to a market crash to get Apple here.. it’s awesome to see. The gap will only grow form here… Next milestone… $1T 😀
Hey Steve, King of the World, it’s about time the world recognizes your towering genius. Unfortunately on planet Earth money talks and this will make ppl sit up and take notice. Apple Rules!
This wasn’t supposed to happen until early 2012 and it’s already here. It must really stick in Ballmer’s big gut craw.
Happy early Christmas everyone!
How you like them apples?
To the stellar team in Cupertino and all around the world, we are all very, very proud of your accomplishment. Today we take our hats off to you.
Congrats to Steve ! And hats off to all Apple staff !!!
When in 1997 Steve Jobs returned to Apple, company’s market capital was ~$0.7B.
Absolutely amazing…
Other corporate giants were profecing that only the paranoid survive, while SJ took on to survive by changing the world. Baby steps vs. giant leaps. Maintain status quo vs. innovative technical revolution.
All the other CEO were surprised with their pants down. Now they eat the BS they were spreading for years.
Our hats off to Steve Jobs!
Whooo hooo!!!!
It’s 8:20 a.m., too early for Champagne, but later tonight…
That THAT Michael Duh-ell.
Did I hear a chair bounce off a wall in Redmond right after that announcement?