Summary:
- Weakness in Europe weighs on the US500
- US500 pulls back after strong recent gains
- Apple close to all-time highs; Can it reach the $1T mark?
As attention turns to the US session, it’s looking like a red open for Wall Street with the US500 trading a little lower at the time of writing. Recent sessions have seen impressive gains for the US500 but the run of 3 higher closes is under threat with the negative political news out of Italy seeing most European bourses trade lower past the mid-point of their cash sessions.
The US500 made a strong push higher following the NFP release on Friday and whilst there has been a bit of a pullback since, the market remains firmly elevated. Source: xStation
One of the biggest drivers in the latest gains for the index has been Apple, with the tech giant seeing its stock soar after announcing a its latest results, which beat forecasts and also included an increase to the dividend and plans for a $100b share repurchase programme.
With Apple’s stock close to all-time highs, it needs only $80B more in value to be added in order to reach the landmark $1 trillion valuation. Source: Bloomberg
What price would the market need to reach to record a $1 Trillion valuation? Given that there are approximately 4.9B shares outstanding then a price of $203.48 would see the momentous landmark reached. The firm hit the $500B mark on February 20th 2012, meaning it will have taken just over six years to double if we see the aforementioned price reached in the not too distant future. To put it in comparison $1 trillion is greater than the GDP of the Netherlands or Malaysia.
Apple’s share price has gained more than 11% from the close before its latest earnings release to Monday’s all-time high of 187.64. Source: xStation