As of Friday’s close of business, Apple was the only corporation to have a market cap of $3 trillion. The Nasdaq has seen its highest first-half increase in forty years as a result of the Big Tech stock boom that it has been riding.
Apple’s stock increased by more than 2% on Friday to a record $193.97. With 15.7 billion shares outstanding, that price of the stock increased Apple’s market worth to a level not seen before.
Apple has been in this situation before. On January 3, 2022, the company briefly traded above the $3 trillion mark but was unable to hold that position.
The company’s stock barely moved up by 0.2% as it closed Thursday at an all-time high share price for the third straight day. Apple easily exceeded the $190.73 threshold required to hit $3 trillion.
The tech giant’s exorbitant value follows the hazardous introduction of the Apple Vision Pro previously this month and a stronger-than-anticipated quarterly earnings report in May, despite slumping sales and profit.
The Vision Pro, an augmented reality device that will be available next year, pleased tech journalists who saw a prototype. But with limited widespread consumer adoption, it is entering a young market. With few apps and experiences currently available, Apple’s headset will cost a pricey $3,499 and bind users to a power pack the size of an iPhone.
As investors hopped on the AI bandwagon, Big Tech firms as a whole experienced a rise, helping Apple’s (AAPL) stock soar 49% this year. With a 190% increase this year, Nvidia (NVDA) is currently leading the S&P 500, followed by Meta (META) at 138%.
The Nasdaq experienced its highest first-half percentage increase since 1983, increasing by 31.7%.
Apple’s performance on the stock market this year contrasts sharply with 2022. For the first time since early 2021, Apple’s market cap was below $2 trillion in the beginning of 2023.
As a result of the tech surge, markets closed higher both for the month and the first half of 2023 on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 experienced its greatest monthly performance since January in June, up 6.5%. Additionally, it had growth for the third straight quarter, rising 8.3% in the second quarter. Approximately 15.9% higher so far this year, the S&P 500 has had its best first half since 2019.