On Friday, Apple’s surge AAPL, +2.61% to its own record after hotter-than-expected quarterly results catapulted the Nasdaq and the broader equity market higher. The iPhone maker rallied nearly 3% and flirted with a valuation at $900 billion.
The Nasdaq Composite Index made history on Friday, as Apple Inc. helped to propel the technology sector to new heights.
The technology-stacked Nasdaq COMP, +0.74% marked its 63rd record close of 2017, surpassing the previous record of 62 all-time closing highs in a calendar year rung up in 1980-a tally it matched on Oct. 31, according to WSJ Market Data Group. All three main benchmark equity indexes closed at records at the same time for the 25th time this year, tying a record for the calendar-year trifecta set in 1995.
And the year’s not close to being over.
The stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.10% Apple’s size also makes it a powerful driver of moves in the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.31%
which is weighted by market value.
The record-setting advance for the Nasdaq Composite-with year-to-date gains that are the best since the dot-com boom of the late 1990s-also comes amid better-than-expected quarterly results from other highflying tech giants, including at Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +1.59% Microsoft Corp MSFT, +0.11% and Google-parent Alphabet Inc. GOOG, +0.67% GOOGL, +0.67%
So far this year, the Nasdaq has far outperformed the other main equity gauges. The index has risen nearly 26% so far in 2017, compared with a gain of nearly 16% for the S&P 500 index and 19% for the Dow over the same period.
Lofty valuations, however, continue to be a concern for market participants as the bull market rides into its ninth year and as the Federal Reserve attempts to lift ultralow borrowing costs, which could produce a headwind for stocks in the future.
At least part of the recent run-up has been pinned to pledges by President Donald Trump for Wall Street friendly policies like tax cuts-which are under review by legislators-deregulation and a boost to infrastructure spending.
