Thursday 18 / April / 2024
Jeddah : Oil magnate Saudi Aramco on Thursday overtook Apple Inc, to become the world's most valuable company due to the recent surge in oil prices.
Aramco is now worth about USD 2.43 trillion, compared with Apple's USD 2.37 trillion, CNN reported citing data from Refinitiv. Market capitalizations fluctuate frequently as earlier this year, Apple (AAPL) hit the USD 3 trillion mark, to become the first company to do so and making it by far the most valuable company on the planet.
The latest market moves point to how the outlook for energy and tech producers has shifted lately, CNN said.
This year, oil prices have soared to record highs, particularly on concerns about disruptions of supply from Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.
Brent crude prices have climbed by as high as 36 per cent this year and are still trading at over USD 106 a barrel.
Meanwhile, Apple's stock has fallen more than 17 per cent since January, the CNN report said.
The iPhone maker has recently been weighed down by major supply chain headaches, particularly in China, where several of its suppliers' factories have been temporarily caught in the country's COVID lockdowns.
Dan Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, called the impact of the lockdowns "the albatross for the June quarter," saying in a report that Apple's supply chain woes in China would likely remain the "peak worry" for investors in the short term.
