Apple Inc crossed $3 trillion in market value in early trading on Tuesday before slipping, after the world’s most valuable company briefly hit the milestone a day earlier.
The iPhone maker’s shares rose to as much as $182.94 after opening flat at $182.63. Shares need to finish above $182.86 level to record the milestone on a closing basis.
On Monday Apple Inc became the first company to hit a $3 trillion stock market value, before ending the day a hair below that milestone, as investors bet the iPhone maker will keep launching best-selling products as it explores new markets such as automated cars and virtual reality.
On the first day of trading in 2022, the Silicon Valley company’s shares hit an intraday record high of $182.88, putting Apple‘s market value just above $3 trillion. The stock ended the session up 2.5% at $182.01, with Apple‘s market capitalization at $2.99 trillion.
The world’s most valuable company reached the milestone as investors bet that consumers will continue to shell out top dollar for iPhones, MacBooks and services such as Apple TV and Apple Music.
“It’s a fantastic accomplishment and certainly worthy to be celebrated,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “It just shows you how far Apple has come, and how dominant it is seen as in the majority of investors’ eyes.”
Apple contracts were the second most actively traded U.S. stock options on Tuesday after Tesla Inc, according to the Options Clearing Corp (OCC) data as of 08:21 a.m. ET. The contract with the highest open interest is Jan. 20th call option with a strike price of $200, Refinitiv data showed.
Apple accounts for nearly 7% of S&P 500 index’s value, according to Refinitiv data, the highest for a single stock on the index at a time when the benchmark is perched at a peak.
The pandemic fueled demand for iPhones, MacBooks and iPads helped push the company’s market capitalization past $2 trillion in August 2020 and add another trillion 16 months later.
“Apple has been one of the key pandemic trades for a lot of people and as we exit the pandemic… the iPhone maker is going to struggle a little bit,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda in New York.
“The next big product breakthrough is nowhere near. It’s going to be a lot harder for Apple to get to four and five trillion than it was for it to go from two to three.”
Apple plans to expand into categories such as self-driving cars and augmented reality as it looks to reduce its reliance on its top-selling iPhones that make up for more than half of its revenue.
Notably, Apple is worth more than any of Europe’s main regional indexes including Britain’s FTSE 100, France’s CAC 40, Germany’s DAX, Spain’s IBEX 35 and Italy’s FTSE MIB.
(Reporting by Medha Singh and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Julien Ponthus in London; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
Copyright 2022 Thomson/Reuters