More than $40 billion in Apple market value just went poof.
The disappointing earnings report issued by the colossus of Cupertino—excruciating details here from Quartz’s own Mike Murphy, et al—sent Apple shares down by more than 8% in after-hours trading.
That decline lowered the market value of the company by more than $40 billion, or approximately the entire market value of Netflix.
So who exactly lost all that money? Well, first off, it’s not really money. It’s the value of an asset. But secondly, it’s probably you—if you own even the most plain-vanilla S&P 500 index fund.
The S&P 500 is a market-cap weighted index, which means the larger a company’s market cap, the larger its representation in the index. And that means Apple, the world’s biggest publicly trading company by market value, is likely the largest position for even the most passive investors, who don’t try to time the market or make big bets on specific stocks.
So, don’t weep for Apple or for Apple investors. Weep for yourself.