Apple market cap has fallen below the $1 trillion level as cases of SARS-CoV-2 in the U.S. surged above 35,000 Monday morning, as COVID-19 infections topped 354,000 worldwide. With widespread testing now ongoing, the U.S. is, as expected, accounting for more new virus cases than any other country.
Ed Carson for Investor’s Business Daily:
Senate Democrats blocked Congress a $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package Sunday. The Federal Reserve signaled it’ll buy unlimited assets to support the economy after a top Fed official said U.S. GDP could contract 50% in the second quarter. With the stimulus bill in doubt, futures plunged “limit down” on Sunday. Futures erased losses Monday morning and turned solidly higher after the Federal Reserve vowed to buy assets “in the amounts needed.” Also, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said a stimulus deal is close. But the stock market traded modestly lower Monday.
Dow Jones giants Boeing and UnitedHealth and Citigroup were huge losers, but even the likes of Apple and Microsoft [dropped] with the economy coming to a virtual halt…
New York state has nearly 17,000 Covid-19 cases. Most of those are in New York City itself.
[See also: New York City Hall didn’t secure 1st order of COVID-19 supplies for NYC until March 6: “City officials waited for over two months after the coronavirus outbreak first hit China to start emergency procurements of masks and hand sanitizer, putting in orders on March 6 and March 10, according to the city comptroller’s office. “Our city is the epicenter of this outbreak in the United States, and we are lacking supplies because the mayor didn’t notice until two weeks ago?” fumed City Councilman Chaim Deutsch. “We ought to have been prepared for this. Blaming Trump is an easy way to avoid hard questions, but it exposes a distinct lack of management on the part of this administration,” the Brooklyn Democrat said.]
Testing will continue to ramp up in the next several weeks, with private labs and tests rushing in. LabCorp (LH) is now able to do more than 20,000 Covid-19 tests per day. The FDA on Saturday gave emergency approval to a Cepheid Covid-19 test that produces results in 45 minutes. The test can run on over 23,000 Cepheid GeneXpert machines, including nearly 5,000 in the U.S. Cepheid is a unit of Danaher (DHR).
The coronavirus stimulus package, approaching $2 trillion, would provide aid would include direct checks to many Americans, expanded jobless benefits, loans to small businesses aid to states and hospitals. It would also give Treasury Secretary Mnuchin $500 billion in discretionary funds to aid businesses.
Democrats objected to that provision, and wanted several new features of their own.
Apple stock tumbled 17.5% last week, while Microsoft stock fell 13.5%.
MacDailyNews Take: The U.S. federal government will work it out. The U.S system is messy (it’s designed that way), but unparalleled.
Microsoft continues to be valued above the $1 trillion mark (currently $1.066 trillion). Apple has fallen below that threshold in morning trading (currently $978.808 billion), so the trillion-dollar market cap club is a club of one.