Apple and Google’s parent company Alphabet erased its gains for the year at Friday’s close. Both companies are now down less than a percent year to date. This reversal lands on a day where the entire market witnessed a steep decline following a mediocre jobs report, according to CNBC. The Dow declined by 2.2 percent when closed, while the Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 3.1 percent.
Apple is already struggling to hold its title of world’s most valuable public company, as Filthy Lucre mentioned. It was surpassed by Microsoft on Friday, but once again gained its title after returning to the lead at the start of the week. Amazon is also challenging both Apple and Microsoft for first place.
In addition, Apple is declining in share price amid speculation that its flagship product, the iPhone, is headed toward slower growth. This speculation comes shortly after Apple announced during its fourth quarter 2018 earnings call that it would no longer report unit sales for the iPhone. Not long after this announcement, several key iPhone suppliers began to cut their revenue forecasts.
Alphabet has also been watched closely recently, while Google CEO Sundar Pichai is expected to testify regarding the company’s policies at a House Judiciary Committee Hearing that was postponed to Tuesday. CNBC believes “he will likely face questions about potential bias in Google’s search results and the company’s proposed plans to reenter China with a censored version of its platform” during the hearing.