Key Takeaways
Amid a post-election rally that has boosted major technology stocks to new highs, the price of Nvidia shares rose 1.7% on Wednesday, Oct. 6, and continued to climb in after-hours trading.
At the time of writing, NVDA was up 4.07% over the last 24 hours.
Having increased its market capitalization by 5.9% in a week and claiming second place less than a month after overtaking Microsoft, the Santa Clara chip maker has usurped Apple as the most valuable company in the world.
Among the largest American technology firms, Nvidia, Amazon and Google all had a strong showing on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Apple stock declined and Meta traded mostly sideways throughout the day.
The combination of Nvidia’s rally and Apple’s decline caused a rearrangement of the global ranking, propelling Nvidia to pole position with a market cap of $3.571 trillion to Apple’s $3.366 trillion.
Nvidia’s gains suggest the market expects the company to benefit from Trump’s stance on AI, which could bolster demand for GPUs in American data centers.
While Meta’s subdued stock market action could be attributed to Trump’s vocal criticism of its platforms, the blame for Apple’s underperformance can be placed elsewhere.
For one thing, the company’s share price has been slipping since last week’s earnings report forecasted weak sales growth for the current quarter.
The bearish sentiment was then further compounded on Sunday after Apple’s fourth-largest shareholder, Berkshire Hathaway, confirmed that it had sold 25% of its shares over the summer.
Along with notable Big Tech gains, other technology stocks also helped propel Wednesday’s rally, which saw all three major U.S. indexes record new highs.
Some of the day’s biggest winners were crypto firms, which were boosted by the expectation that Trump would deliver a more favorable regulatory environment for the sector.
Coinbase was up 31%, Marathon Digital 19%, and Riot Platforms 26% in 24 hours.
Another major beneficiary of the rally was Tesla, which climbed nearly 15% in the same period to reach its highest market capitalization in more than two years.