Wall Street Drama: Company Wipes Out Half a Trillion Dollars as Others Soar
Apple continues to trade under pressure, losing its second-place global market cap ranking to Alphabet, while Amazon celebrates an unprecedented historical milestone on Wall Street.
Wall Street began the week with particularly positive trading. The trend was led mainly by large technology stocks, which benefited from continued optimism surrounding financial reports published in recent days. The Nasdaq index rose by 2.1%, the S&P 500 index strengthened by 1.5% to close above the 7,600-point level, while the Dow Jones index added about 1.4% and set a new closing record.
Alongside the rise in the stock market, there was a decrease in the yield of 10-year US government bonds, which lost 6 basis points to reach 4.69%. At the same time, the dollar strengthened against most major world currencies, including the euro and the pound sterling, while a weakening was recorded against the Japanese yen.
Technology giants were once again at the center of trading. Amazon jumped by about 4.6%, Microsoft and Alphabet added almost 5% each, Meta strengthened by more than 6% after recovering from recent declines, Tesla rose by about 3.5%, and Nvidia added close to 3%.
Amazon marked a significant milestone by crossing a market capitalization of more than 3 trillion dollars for the first time. The stock continued to enjoy momentum following the publication of second-quarter results, in which the company presented earnings per share significantly higher than analysts' forecasts.
On the other hand, Apple continued to trade under pressure. The company's stock fell by about 1.8%, completing a decline of more than 10% within four trading days. During this period, more than 500 billion dollars were wiped from the company's value, and it dropped to third place in the world in terms of market capitalization after being overtaken by Alphabet.
The artificial intelligence field also continued to attract great interest. Companies operating in AI infrastructure stood out with sharp rises: CoreWeave jumped by about 20%, Nebius added more than 10%, Vertiv recorded a jump of over 8%, and Coherent and Lumentum also showed impressive gains.
In contrast, semiconductor stocks showed more moderate performance. After volatile trading, the SOXX ETF closed with a rise of about 0.7%, while AMD, Nvidia, and Micron managed to end the day with moderate gains.
One of the key factors supporting the positive atmosphere was the sharp change in oil prices. After President Donald Trump announced the cancellation of the attack on Iran, oil prices fell by 4% to 5%. WTI oil traded around 80 dollars per barrel, while the price of a Brent barrel fell to the 83-dollar area. The decline in energy prices hurt energy sector stocks, which lost about 1.2%, but provided a tailwind for the aviation and cruise industries.
Among the main beneficiaries of the drop in fuel prices were Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, American Airlines, and United Airlines, each of which recorded gains of several percent during the trading day.
A look at sector performance in the S&P 500 index shows that eight out of eleven sectors ended the day with gains. At the top of the list was the communication services sector with a jump of about 4.3%, followed by the consumer discretionary and industrial sectors. The technology sector also continued to strengthen. On the other hand, the healthcare, consumer staples, and energy sectors ended trading with declines.
