On August 2, 2018, I wrote that Apple became the first company to reach US$1 trillion in equity capitalisation, the world’s first unitrill.

This was shortly followed by Amazon achieving unitrill status on September 5, 2018.

Not long after, the Fed lifted interest rates for a fourth time in a year and on December 24, the US market went into meltdown.

Since the Fed’s about face in January when it summoned the vampire, stocks have been recovering and Amazon and Microsoft have been up, down and around the US$1 trillion level, but Apple has been the slow poke.

That said, after popping over 4% following its quarterly results, Apple today regained its unitrill status.

Microsoft and Apple now trade above US$1 trillion each.

Amazon was noticeably absent from the unitrill club today, with its capitalisation having been dialled down by nearly US$70 billion this month as a result of competition from eBay and Alibaba, along with calls for big tech to be broken up on anti-trust grounds.

No doubt these valuations will wax and wane and depending on how things go, we may or may not see three companies at unitrill status at the same time.

But if that was to occur, it is likely to say more about expectations for continuing and/or more global QE, than anything else.

Mike.

NextLevelCorporate is a leading strategic corporate advisory firm with a multi-decade track record which speaks for itself. We inject independent and conflict-free Senior Advisor experience and expertise directly into private and public M&A, debt and equity transactions/strategies.