Apple has posted its eighth straight week of decline, shaving $165 billion off the Company’s market capitalisation.Apart from the Global Financial Crisis debacle in 2008, Apple shares have been on the rise since 2003. This year it surpassed Exxon Mobil to become the world’s most valuable company by a gap of US$100 billion.
However, the winning streak seems to have slowed down with investors selling their stock and shedding a quarter of Apple’s value. Talk of a potential capital gains tax to be introduced next year has reportedly spurred the sale of Apple shares.
“Some of the selling is being driven by these tax decisions, but the flip side is there is not a lot of buyers because the buyers are procrastinating to see how the negotiations come out,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior-vice president at BB&T Wealth Management to Reuters. “You probably have an inordinate effect to the downside because of these tax strategies.”
In spite of having momentum go against them, Apple shares remain up by 30% for the year. In late October, the release of the iPhone 5 resulted in a 24% spike, but this still fell short of analyst expectations. Analysts claim Apple’s performance could have been higher if there wasn’t stock shortages of the new iPhone.
For the year, Apple’s revenue reached US$156.5 billion, exceeding the revenue of Google, Microsoft and Facebook combined.
