Coronavirus fears erase 20% of Apple’s market cap

By

iMac Apple
Apple heavily relies on China where coronavirus has been most prevalent.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Coronavirus has hit Apple shares hard. Despite initially shrugging off the disruption of the outbreak, Apple is currently trading down more than 20% from its record record high.

That makes it one of the hardest hit stocks on the Dow Jones Industrial Average thanks to coronavirus.

Apple climbed to $327.85 on January 29. At time of writing, it is trading at $261.20. That puts it down by around one-fifth of its value from its previous high.

Overall, the U.S. stock had a disastrous Thursday as it fell into correction territory, largely due to worries about coronavirus. A correction is defined as a 10% decline in one of the major U.S. stock indexes from a recent 52-week high close.

Apple loses one-fifth of its market cap due to coronavirus fears

One of the reasons for the decline in Apple’s share price is because of its reliance on China. This is where the impact coronavirus has so far been felt most strongly. Apple supplier Foxconn recently said that it expects its full-year 2020 revenue to take a hit as a result of the outbreak of coronavirus in China. Apple has also pulled its previous forecast for fiscal second quarter earnings as a result of the virus. This is only the second time in 15 years that Apple has done this.

At present, the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 — has infected almost 84,000 people worldwide. There have been 2,870 deaths with the majority of these occurring in mainland China. However, there have also been a growing number of cases in other countries.

With the decline in share price, Apple’s market cap is currently in the region of $1.146 trillion. While that’s down from its recent high, it’s still way up from where Apple has been at almost any point in its history. The last time that Apple was valued at its current price was in November 2019 when the stock was rising rapidly.

During a recent interview with FOX Business, Tim Cook said that “it feels to me that China is getting the coronavirus under control. You look at the numbers, they’re coming down day by day by day. And so I’m very optimistic there.”

Source: CNBC

 

 

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.