Stock traders, pension funds, global investors, and asset managers had a lot to laugh about as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft closed at all-time highs yesterday, a day when the Nasdaq Composite Index also broke its trading record numbers.
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft have performed better than most businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, as individuals and businesses have moved to the cloud and remote services; thanks to their massive market capitalization, which helped them to withstand the huge sell-offs recorded months ago.
The big tech firms staged a record-breaking comeback, despite huge unemployment numbers recorded around the world, which were sparked by COVID-19 induced lockdowns.
Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, all gained more than 3% yesterday, while Microsoft finished slightly higher at about 0.8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also gained about 0.3%, touching the 10,000 points for the first time ever.
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Consequently, the combined market worth for Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft is now close to $5 trillion, with Apple claiming the first position at nearly $1.5 trillion. Facebook is the only one in the big four with a market value below $1 trillion.
However, popular tech juggernaut Google’s parent-company, Alphabet, is the only one among the largest technology stocks not finishing at an all-time high. It’s still about 5% short to hit its all-time high of $1,524.87.
The macro fundamentals coming out from last week’s impressive U.S job numbers helped to trigger the rally.
“Recent data points like the jobs report and not-as-bad-as-feared company updates have fueled the view that the worst of the declines could be behind us,” a team of RBC Capital Markets analysts told clients Monday. “The risk-on trade really is gaining traction. Valuations have spiked to historical highs in many industrial sub-sectors, signaling a strong recovery is potentially taking hold.”
