Apple’s Slide Topples Last Stock in $2 Trillion Club
A steady slide in Apple Inc. shares pushed the iPhone maker's market value below $2 trillion, the latest casualty in the tech stock rout.
Apple fell as much as 4.2% on Tuesday as concerns about iPhone supply in the important holiday quarter mount and investors lose faith in a reprieve from higher interest rates. The slump sent Apple's market value to $1.98 trillion, ending its reign as the last company to sport a $2 trillion valuation after Microsoft Corp. and oil giant Saudi Aramco retreated in 2022.
The milestone marks a fall from grace for Apple. The stock spent much of the past year outperforming the S&P 500 Index but has stumbled in recent weeks amid fears that iPhone production problems in China will ruin holiday sales, the company's most important period.
Exactly a year ago, Apple's shares briefly rallied to climb above $3 trillion in market value as the S&P 500 hit a record high.
The four largest US technology companies have lost more than $3 trillion in market value in 2022 amid soaring inflation and slowing sales growth that surged during the Covid-19 pandemic. December was Apple's worst month since May 2019 with a decline of 12%, which exceeds the 9% decline for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Stock Index in the same period.
IPhone Production Woes
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has suffered supply disruptions stemming from Covid-19 lockdowns in China, but those have been easing. Manufacturing partner Foxconn Technology Group has brought the world's largest iPhone plant back to about 90% of anticipated peak capacity.
The Zhengzhou facility, known as iPhone City, produces the vast majority of high-end iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max devices. In November, thousands of workers had fled or staged protests
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