After suffering unexpected and disastrous losses on Thursday when its stock tumbled nearly 10%, Apple's fortunes improved on Friday when it was up 4.3% at the end of trading. The company was still down 5.1% for the week after it cut its forecast for its first fiscal quarter on the back of slower iPhone sales and slackening economic growth in China. Thursday was Apple's worst day trading since 2013 and the company shed an incredible $452 billion in market capitalization since October 3, 2018.
Last week, some observers labeled the slump as a minor hiccup while others claimed it was a major disaster. Either way, it's interesting to put the sheer scale of the wipeout into perspective. Losses of $452 billion are more than the individual market capitalization of Facebook ($378.6 billion), Alibaba ($355.9 billion) or JPMorgan Chase & Co. ($322.9 billion). It's also around the six times the size of Starbucks' market value.
In early August, Apple beat Amazon to become the world's first trillion-dollar company after its shares hit $207.05. Last week, its market value sunk as low as $674 billion and it currently stands at $703 billion with shares worth $142.19. With a lack of a game-changing product in the pipeline, some analysts have suggested that Apple take the unprecedented step of acquiring a company that can improve its fortunes. Given its track record, however, this appears highly unlikely and it will probably have to find another way to appease its investors.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)
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