It’s a great day, and year, to own stock in America’s technology sector.
Mostly, the reasons were clear: Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet reported expectation-beating earnings yesterday (Oct. 26) after trading hours, and Apple saw strong demand for its new iPhone X overnight. As for Facebook, apparently a rising tide lifts all boats. By 1:30pm ET today, the market capitalization of those companies increased by $181 billion. For the sake of comparison, Goldman Sachs has a market cap of $93 billion.
This year so far has been a big one for these companies, which have added nearly $1 trillion in value. And it’s only October—at current rates, these companies will have accrued that $1 trillion in market capitalization by the end of the year. Who knows, it could even happen next week when Facebook and Apple report earnings.