Microsoft briefly overtakes Apple as the most valuable American company

Microsoft briefly overtook Apple as the world's most valuable listed company, realizing what it had done almost eight years ago and adding a feather in the hat to its CEO, Satya Nadella.

The Microsoft headquarters, based in Redmond, Washington State, had a market capitalization of $ 753.34 billion, exceeding the $ 746.82 billion invested by the iPhone maker on Friday. daily transactions at Nasdaq in New York.

Apple, however, regained control at closing. According to the Nasdaq website, Apple's market capitalization has risen to $ 817.58 billion. Just behind, Microsoft, which has also grown to $ 791.19 billion.

Technology companies have recently gone through difficult times. In particular, the group called FAANG – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (Alphabet) – recorded November 20 combined market capitalization losses of more than $ 1.02 trillion compared to their recent highs.

FAANG lost 253 billion, 280 billion, 253 billion, 67 billion and 164 billion dollars respectively.

Technology stocks have been a major contributor to the stock market over the past decade, removing fears that their values ​​will be exaggerated as investors continue to review and buy them.

However, this year has been tough: the threat of regulation, loss of confidence in social media, low sales and revenue forecasts, as well as imminent interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve prompted a rout in the market.

"People are selling these multiple high-growth names and this category is essentially technology and the Internet," said David Older, head of shares at Carmignac, in an article in the Daily Telegraph in the UK.

"The software has been the story of the most predictable growth of the economy. [Now] you have this fear on the market of the slowdown of the growth trajectory. People are looking forward to 2019 and say the expectations are too high. "

Another point he made was that big tech companies, such as Facebook, which have driven the stock market boom in recent years, have never been put to the test by a global economic downturn like what happened in 2008.

The global economy has also had its ups and downs, mainly because of the fierce trade war between the United States and China, which has had negative effects on equities and manufacturers.

"The nervousness of the global stock market has returned [last] Investors are becoming increasingly nervous as the US tech stock crisis that began last month intensifies, "said David Cheetham, Senior Market Analyst at XTB. The market remains sensitive to the decline. "

At the time of publication, Amazon had a market capitalization of $ 734.46 billion. Alphabet, which trades under the name of Google, totaled $ 716.4 billion and Facebook, $ 378.56 billion. Netflix had $ 110.1 billion.

Apple, which had a grip on the No. 1 t-shirt for several years, surpassed the $ 1 trillion mark on Aug. 2, a first for a US company. Amazon, who had long been second thanks to the aggressive strategy of CEO Jeff Bezos and threatened to beat Apple at the 13-digit mark, hit him on Sept. 4.

But both companies lost their status in trillions of dollars due to a combination of less optimistic forecasts for the holiday season, a drop in stock prices and a general decline in equities. technology. Facebook's losses, on the other hand, were mainly attributed to a number of scandals in which it was involved this year, including the disorder of Cambridge Analytica.

Microsoft, meanwhile, remained fairly stable.

He surpassed Amazon for second place on Oct. 26, after the e-commerce giant lost $ 68.1 billion that day. On September 20, it reached a record $ 888.20 billion in market capitalization. It exceeded by a few billion dollars the level exceeded by Apple in 2010.

Its cloud computing division has been the mainstay of its resurgence. In its first quarter report last month, its smart cloud 's business figure rose to $ 8.6 billion, up 24%.

Overall, revenues increased 19% to $ 29.1 billion, operating income increased 29% to $ 10 billion and net income rose 34% to $ 8 billion. , $ 8 billion.

"We have got off to a good start for the 2019 fiscal year," said Nadella, who had launched a dramatic transformation strategy after taking office in 2014, in a statement accompanying the results. It was "the result of our innovation and the confidence that customers place in us".

The first quarter results were also a reflection [of Microsoft’s] commitment to long-term strategic investments and consistent execution to drive revenue growth and increased operating margin, "added Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Amy Hood.

Khaleej Times has sought the advice of Microsoft Gulf, but has not yet responded at the time of publication.

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