This Day In Market History: Apple Hits $600B Market Cap

Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened?

On this day in 2012, Apple, Inc. AAPL became just the second public company in history to reach a market cap of $600 billion.

Where The Market Was

The Dow finished the day at 12,715.93. The S&P 500 finished at 1,358.59. Today, the Dow is trading at 26,150 and the S&P 500 is trading at 2,878.

What Else Was Going On In The World?

In 2012, Facebook, Inc. FB held its IPO and went public at a price of $38 per share. Hurricane Sandy devastated the U.S. East Coast, killing roughly 300 people and inflicting more than $50 billion in property damage. The average cost of a new house in the U.S. was $263,200.

Apple Joins The $600 Billion Club

When Apple’s share price hit $644 in 2012, it put the company over the $600 billion market cap for the first time. At the time, Apple was the most valuable public company in the world, a title which is has mostly held onto ever since.

Apple was just the second company to ever reach the $600 billion market cap level, joining Microsoft Corporation MSFT, which reached a $618.9 billion peak during the dot com bubble in 1999.

Apple broke Microsoft’s record when it hit a value of $620 billion in August of 2012. Today, Apple is on the verge of becoming the world’s first $1 trillion company. Its current market cap stands at $854.3 billion.

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