APPLE HITS US$1TRIL MART CAP
Shares end US trading at US$207.39 after firm announces strong quarterly profit
APPLE became the first private company to reach US$1 trillion (RM4.08 trillion) in market capitalisation on Thursday, a bright spot on an otherwise dreary day for European and Asian stock bourses wracked by trade war fears.
Shares of Apple finished the formal Wall Street trading day up 2.9 per cent at US$207.39, topping the magic number needed to exceed US$1 trillion in market value two days after the California tech giant reported strong quarterly earnings.
The rally in Apple shares – along with big gains for Tesla motors – helped propel the S&P 500 and Nasdaq solidly higher.
The surge in Apple shares revealed anew how technology remained the “sector that propels the market”, despite headwinds facing some prominent companies, said Gregori Volokhine, president of Meeschaert Capital Markets.
But stocks elsewhere were under pressure as trade war fears ratcheted higher after the United States said it was looking at more than doubling threatened tariffs on a range of Chinese imports.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday called on the US to remain “cool-headed” but that appeal alone appeared to do little to shift the mood on trading floors.
In Germany, the DAX blue-chip index was down 1.5 per cent at the closing bell, with analysts blaming US tariff threats that would hit car manufacturers especially hard.
Paris fell 0.7 per cent and London one per cent, while Tokyo, Hong Kong and Beijing all dropped.
Should the US follow through, it would be “a considerable step-up in the trade dispute between US and China and would start to seriously threaten global growth”, said Konstantinos Anthis, head of research at ADSS.
In London, sterling slipped after the Bank of England hiked its key interest rate by a quarter-point to 0.75 per cent but seemed reticent to announce any further rate rises amid Brexit uncertainty.
The pound at first edged slightly higher in response to the rate hike but then dropped below the level seen just before the meeting.
“The pound’s sharp decline could be based on investors acknowledging that today’s rate hike is a ‘one-and-done’ move,” said Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at FXTM.
“With Brexit uncertainty, cooling inflationary pressures and global trade tensions likely to obstruct the central bank’s efforts to raise interest rates, the pound remains vulnerable to downside risks,” he added.
Investors are looking ahead to US employment report, which is projected to show a gain of 190,000 jobs last month and unemployment dipping to 3.9 per cent.