(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on July 07, 2020 shows (L-R) Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in Paris on May 23, 2018, Google CEO Sundar Pichai Berlin on January 22, 2019, Apple CEO Tim Cook on October 28, 2019 in New York and Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 6, 2019.
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Four of the largest U.S. tech companies collectively added roughly $200 billion in total to their market values after hours on Thursday, as each released strong earnings reports that beat analysts’ expectations on most fronts.
As of Thursday’s close, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook were collectively worth $4.9 trillion. The companies will likely surpass $5.1 trillion as of Friday’s open, taking into account Thursday’s after-hours gains.
Apple reported a historically strong quarter and added around $74.4 billion to its market capitalization in after-hours trading. Amazon, which saw sales soar due to the coronavirus pandemic, also added roughly $74.4 billion. Despite reporting its annualized first revenue decline since becoming a public company, Alphabet added $7.6 billion. Facebook reported its slowest revenue growth since its market debut in 2012, but added $42.6 billion.
The strong earnings reports come one day after the four CEOs of the companies spent several hours answering questions from the House Antitrust Committee about their power and influence. Despite the questioning, and impending legal actions against all four companies, investors seemed unconcerned with the proceedings, continuing to drive the stocks higher.
Overall, the four companies plus fellow tech giants Microsoft (worth more than $1.5 trillion) and Tesla (worth more than $275 billion) made up about the total value of the NASDAQ 100 earlier this month.
