A Saudi oil company ranks Apple as the most important company in the world

Rising oil prices and the collapse of technology components caused American Apple to lose the throne of the most important company in the world.

Aramco, a Saudi firm that produces oil and natural gas, has outperformed the technology company in the ranking of companies with the highest market capitalization, that is, the most valuable according to the price of their shares on the Stock Exchange.

energy company, one of the largest oil producers in the world and the largest exporter, which reached the end of Wednesday’s session worth $ 2.42 trillionwhile Apple, which has continued to collapse in its components last month, is worth US $ 2.37 billion, according to news agencies Bloomberg and AFP.

That position was maintained on Thursday, even as shares of both companies traded in the red. Aramco is at $ 2.38 trillion and Apple at $ 2.289 trillion. Third in the ranking is Microsoft, far from the same, with US $ 1.9 billion.

Apple was ahead in market capitalization in 2012, removed ExxonMobil, and has held that position ever since, except for brief periods when Microsoft and Aramco themselves managed to climb to the top spot.

With the exception of Aramco, the top five places in the most important companies consist only of technology companies Americans: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), and Amazon, in that order.

The Saudi oil company has benefited in recent months from rise of more than 60% in international oil prices -which sometimes exceeded US $ 130 after the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine-, and the impasse in negotiations between European Union (EU) countries to establish a total embargo on Russia’s crude, which spurred oil and energy. roles in general.

technologies are declining

Apple, producer of the iPhone and Mac, was the first company to reach a market value of US $ 3 billion in January.

But since then, investors have come out of risky assets hit technology stocks especially harda trend common in times of economic uncertainty and rising interest rates, as the U.S. Federal Reserve did recently.

In that sense, the Nasdaq, the Wall Street index that brings together these companies, fell 3.18% on Wednesday (the actions of Apple lost 5.2% and they are at their lowest level since last November), and accumulating a loss of 12.80% compared to last year. This Thursday dropped another 3% Past noon.

In addition, the company’s role is affected by fears that inflation – which in countries like the United States has been at unprecedented levels since the early 1980s – will reduce purchasing power and, in particular, affect consumers. goods such as technology.

According to Tim Ghriskey, a strategist at Ingalls & Snyder, “There are panic sales in many technologies and the money coming out of it seems to be directed specifically at energy, which so far exists a favorable outlookdue to commodity prices “.

“When the Fed is on track to raise rates by at least 150 points this year and there is no hope of a resolution to the conflict in Ukraine, it may take some time before technology re -emerges“, He added.

Aramco, whose benefits for this first quarter will be announced in the coming days, has revenues of US $ 110,000 million in 2021, 124% more than in 2020the year in which it was affected by falling demand due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, other energy companies have already posted record earnings so far this year on rising oil and gas prices, with Shell raising $ 9.1bn this quarter (from $ 3.2bn in the same period). last year). ), BP, US $ 6.2 billion and US $ 5.48 billion in the ExxonMobil case.

Apple posted the third-best quarter of its earnings in history earlier this year, but CEO Tim Cook warned that component shortages and lockouts in China they could cost the company up to $ 8 billion.

NE