Apple’s velveteen pockets looked deeper than ever on Friday as its stock price climbed above record highs to $236.88 per share during normal trading hours.
The iPhone maker set its previous record last October (peaking at $237.64 per share). Currently, it’s valued at an alarming $1.07 trillion, a whole lot of zeros—or: $1,070,000,000,000.
Written out vertically, those zeros look all the more shocking. (We won’t do that here, but try it at home.)
Apple’s peers, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Intel, were also trading up today, and that’s likely in part due to an uncharacteristically gentle tweet from President Trump on the ongoing trade war with China, the place Apple and other tech giants go to make a lot of phones on the cheap. The highlights: “Good things are happening” and there are “Warmer feelings [. . .] more like the Old Days.” That’s good news for Apple’s Tim Cook, as the chief executive has put a lot of hours into his relationship with the president.
Good things are happening at China Trade Talk Meeting. Warmer feelings than in recent past, more like the Old Days. I will be meeting with the Vice Premier today. All would like to see something significant happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2019
As CNBC notes, if the U.S. and China aren’t able to reach a deal, Apple faces a significant tax hike on the products it imports from China, forcing it to either foot the bill or pass the added cost to customers.
Apple’s business today, however, may be ever so slightly less vulnerable to trade war crossfire. Its longstanding model, shipping more and more iPhones, is shifting toward selling more services to existing customers. Most recently, that’s taken the form of Apple TV+, Apple’s upcoming video streaming service, and it helps explain the reported formation of Apple’s own in-house studio.
This post has been updated with higher figure for Apple’s 52-week high than was previously cited.
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