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Market Views
How Apple lost over $500 billion in 12 trading days
Apple has lost about 22.6% from its intraday record high of $137.98 recorded on September 2.
In Issac Newton’s words, “what goes up usually comes down”. In Apple’s case, it took about 12 trading sessions for the world’s most valuable listed company by market value (Apple Inc) to lose more than $500 billion in market capitalization, showing a whooping decline of more than 20%.
The tech juggernaut has plunged about 22.6% from its intraday record high of $137.98 recorded on September 2 losing about $532 billion in market value.
Why it’s happening; Apple’s fast and whooping fall followed its massive run-up in August ahead of its 4-for-1 stock split, while record losses also came as Apple’s recent product event disappointed many investors and its fans globally.
Toni Sacconaghi, senior research analyst at Bernstein in a note to CNBC, called the event “relatively underwhelming.”
“We believe it could be difficult to move users from competitive music, video, or gaming services, where they are often entrenched,” Sacconaghi said in a note. “We continue to believe that Apple should look to more creatively bundle its hardware + services into integrated subscription bundles.”
Sequel to Apple’s recent fall, Nairametrics about a month ago broke the news showing how the tech juggernaut crossed the $2 trillion mark in market valuation – the first company in the world to achieve this feat.
Apple was also the first company to cross the $1 trillion market capitalization mark.
Apple became the first company to cross $2 trillion after riding on a wave of positive market sentiments that has trailed the United States since the Trump Administration pumped in trillions in stimulus in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that shut down the economy of the richest country in the world.
That said, the fall of Apple’s share price in recent days came amid a significant sell-off in the tech sector as stock traders shifted out of the market-leading high-flyers. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had dropped into correction territory, down more than 10% from its record high.
Market Views
Bitcoin, Gold, leading Stocks tumble on strong U.S dollar
The U.S dollar index gained 0.6% on the day to settle at 90.77.
The dollar was fired up at the last trading session of the week crushing its major currency rivals, Bitcoin, Gold, and leading global Stocks.
The U.S dollar retained its safe-haven status on the account of the U.S Dollar Index settled remarkably higher than a basket of six other global major currencies.
The U.S dollar index gained 0.6% on the day to settle at 90.77.
READ: U.S Central Bank leader says no rush into crypto dollar
What this means
Investors are piling to the U.S dollar after receiving worrying U.S economic data. Retail sales in the world’s largest economy were off 0.7% last month, the third straight drop.
- Such upsides seen in the greenback’s value saw gold at the expense of a charging dollar whose strength astonished metal traders, saw gold futures losing as much as 1.16% to settle at 1,829.90/ounce
- Also at press time the flagship crypto asset, Bitcoin traded at $35,756.99 with a daily trading volume of $70 Billion.
- Bitcoin is down 7.38% for the day.
READ: Google, Facebook, Twitter stocks drop, investors ponder if big techs have become too powerful
Also, the world’s biggest stock market by market volume and liquidity suffered heavy losses, as data showed the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by 0.57% to settle at 30,814.26 index points, the S&P 500 lost about 0.72% to settle at 3,768.25 and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 0.87% to close at 12,998.50 index points.
The greenback was an outlier at the last trading session despite drops seen in U.S bond yields associated with the benchmark 10-year U.S. note, whose resurgence in the previous week had been the catalyst for the U.S dollar comeback.
READ: Gold on a grand slam win, gains $40 per ounce
What they are saying
Milan Cutkovic, Market Analyst at Axi, in an explanatory note to Nairametrics, spoke on fundamentals supporting the rebound of the U.S dollar;
- “Many investors continue to stand on the side lines. President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his US$1.9 trillion stimulus plan. There were no major surprises, and a lot of it was already priced in.
- “Investors are now focused on how quickly the Biden administration can implement their plans and support the ailing US economy. Although Biden will be inaugurated on Wednesday, the second impeachment of Donald Trump might overshadow the first few weeks of his term.
- “Investors are also increasingly confronted with the reality that the pandemic is still far from being under control, despite the significant progress that was made in the past few months, and several COVID-19 vaccines already on the market.”
READ: Silver surpasses three-week high, joins Bullish momentum
Bottom line
Investors are increasingly confronted with the reality that the pandemic is still far from being under control, thereby flocking back to the safe-haven currency despite the significant progress that was made in the past few months, and several COVID-19 vaccines already on the market.
Market Views
Google, Facebook, Twitter stocks drop, investors ponder if big techs have become too powerful
Some powerful politicians have publicly decried the role these tech brands are having in censoring speeches.
Leading U.S tech stocks including Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Amazon, and Google experienced record sell-offs on growing global sentiments that big tech companies are getting out of control.
Such macros weighed heavily on these stocks as evidenced in Monday’s trading session performance for these tech stocks.
READ: Top 10 stockbroking firms traded stocks worth N1.17 trillion in 2020
At the end of Monday’s trading session,
- Twitter lost about 6.41%
- Facebook down by 4.01%
- Apple dropped 2.32%
- Google (Alphabet) fell by 2.31%
- Amazon down by 2.15%
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Also, some powerful politicians publicly decried the role these tech brands are having on censoring speech, as senior lawmakers in France and Germany, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, voiced their concerns.
The fall is largely attributed to record sell-offs from investors on account of these tech brands’ decision to permanently ban one of its most popular and powerful users, President Trump, and other leading voices from their social networks.
READ: 5 Nigerian startups selected to join 7 others at the Africa Tech Summit Connects (ATS)
What this means
Stock experts further anticipate such a move could deprive fast-rising tech brands of one of their best traffic-generators, as well as risking alienating some people who share the opinion that tech brands like Twitter, Google, Facebook have become too powerful.
Milan Cutkovic, Market Analyst at Axi, in a note to Nairametrics, spoke on the prevailing macros disrupting U.S stocks at least for the near term.
- “Fears of a global trade war have weighed multiple times on markets during the past few years. While concerns remain, the risk of trade tensions escalating has declined with Biden entering the White House soon.
- “While the US-China relations will remain complex, they could warm up somewhat after four turbulent years. Meanwhile, tech giants, Facebook and Twitter, have found themselves in a political crossfire by blocking US President Trump from their platform, which also weighed on the NASDAQ index.”
READ: Banks Vs Fintechs – Who should be Afraid? (Part Two)
What to expect: The question of whether big tech has become too powerful is likely to lead to some heated discussions in the coming weeks.
Market Views
Twitter drops 8.5% in early trading over President Trump ban
Record sell-offs from investors on account of the social media giant’s decision to ban, one of its most popular and powerful user, President Trump.
An American leading social media company, Twitter, saw its shares drop as much as 8.5% at the start of Monday’s trading session on the New York Stock Exchange.
READ: Mike Pence to go against Trump, announces he will attend inauguration
The fall is largely attributed to record sell-offs from investors on account of the social media giant’s decision to ban one of its most popular and powerful users, President Trump, permanently from its social network.
READ: Co-founder of Floyd Mayweather-backed crypto sentenced to prison for fraud
Stock experts further anticipate such a move deprives the fast-rising tech brand of one of its best traffic-generators, as well as risking alienating some people who share the opinion that tech brands like Twitter, Google, Facebook have become too powerful.
READ: Facebook suspends Donald Trump indefinitely
The tech brands are trying to stay away from accusations that they helped fuel the violence during the storming of the Capitol in Washington some days ago by a mob sympathetic to President’s Trump election loss.
