Top-five tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook) have corrected anywhere between 25-30% over the last month’s global market crash. These companies have entered an official bear market after leading the 11-year bull market after the 2008 financial crisis.
As on March 19 closing on the indices, the big five tech companies have lost a combined market cap of $1.3 trillion. These big five giants include Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB). However, all these companies except for Apple were trading positive on Thursday’s closing.
Over the last month, global markets have witnessed a sharp downfall in this market correction. Dow Jones crashed nearly 33% since mid-February 2020, going below 20,000 levels on March 19. This market crash has also had a severe impact on all the bluechip technology companies.
Out of these top five, the first four were comfortably trading over $1 trillion each just a month back. Currently, only Apple and Microsoft have managed to maintain their position above $1 trillion valuations. In this market crash, Apple has lost nearly $400 billion while Microsoft has lost around $300 billion.
Stocks of all of these top-five companies have corrected to the tune of 25-35% as investors’ sell-off intensifies in the stock market. Note that these were the only five companies leading the 11-year bull market coming out of the 2008 financial crisis. Thing is many of these top tech companies that have entered the bear market territory now.
Today, in the premarket, big tech companies were in the green. AAPL was trading at $249.35 (+1.87%), AMZN added 2.77% and reached $1,933.01. Facebook stock was at $156 (+1.87%), Microsoft stock was at $147.45 (+3.32%) and GOOGL price was $1,139.50 (+2.50%).
Coronavirus Threat Escalating the Chances of Global Recession
The outbreak of COVID-19 has disrupted businesses and their supply chains all across the globe. Earlier in January, the Coronavirus emerged from China and just within 40 days it has spread all across Europe, U. S. and other powerful Asian economies like Japan, South Korea, and India.
Major cities in Europe are facing severe lockdown at this stage at matters get worse and out of hand. Apple has already warned that the virus outbreak will impact its iPhone production, which majorly happens in China, and we could see the sales declining. Also, analysts have cut down their forecast for the APPL stock in the coming quarters.
Companies like Microsoft and Amazon have already asked their employees to work from home, especially from their Seattle headquarters. On the other hand, social media giant Facebook is taking some corrective measures. Earlier this week, Facebook announced $10-million funds for small businesses impacted by COVID-19 all across the globe. Besides, Facebook has also announced $1000 pay to its 45,000 employees to combat these tough times. Facebook said that it is working with government health officials and would offer any software support required.
Wall Street biggies are already giving signals of a possible economic recession coming ahead soon. Pershing Capital’s hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said “hell is coming” and also asked President Trump to shut down the country for 30 days.
On Thursday, Bank of America told investors that the coronavirus induced recession is no longer avoidable. Rather it said that it’s already here.
“We are officially declaring that the economy has fallen into a recession … joining the rest of the world, and it is a deep plunge. Jobs will be lost, wealth will be destroyed and confidence depressed,” Bank of America U.S. economist Michelle Meyer wrote in a note.
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