Apple 1st U.S. company to hit $2T market value

BERKELEY, Calif. — Apple has become the first U.S. company to boast a market value of $2 trillion as technology continues to reshape a world where smartphones are like appendages and digital services are like instruments orchestrating people’s lives.

The iPhone maker reached the $2 trillion milestone in Wednesday’s early stock market trading when its shares surpassed $467.77.

The stock later backtracked to close at $462.83, but it didn’t diminish a remarkable achievement that came just two years after Apple became the first U.S. company with a $1 trillion market value.

Apple, whose stock has climbed nearly 58% this year, and other well-established tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook and Netflix have thrived during the pandemic, which has forced millions of people to work, attend classes, shop and entertain themselves at home. That, in turn, has made technology even more crucial, a factor that has caused investors to snap up the stocks of the industry’s biggest players, as well as relative newcomers, such as video conferencing service Zoom, which has seen its shares quadruple so far this year.

Target, Lowe’s sales surge as Americans lean on big box stores

NEW YORK — Target reported the largest quarterly sales growth, including an online sales spike, in its 58-year-history, the latest evidence that Americans are consolidating their trips to big box stores and pivoting their spending to around the home during the pandemic.

Target said that online sales nearly tripled during the quarter as shoppers relied more on services like curbside pickup. But Target’s same-store sales also spiked 10.9% during the three-month period ended August 1. Meanwhile, home improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos. reported on Wednesday that comparable store sales in the U.S. surged 35.1% and online orders more than doubled.