Amid all the hubbub of the markets was a notable little event, Apple overtaking Exxon to become the Number One company in terms of capitalization.
But Apple recently passed another milestone...albeit one of interest pretty much only to Intenet news jockey's like me. It has passed Citigroup as the Number One stock ticker on our site.
You see, amongst the various monitoring doodads and gizmos we have is a list of what stocks people are looking up. Traditionally, for as long as I can remember actually, the leader has been Citigroup . Sure, depending on the news of the day another stock quote may race up to the top spot for a day or two. GM, for example, was tops for a few days when it was wrestling with bankruptcy a couple of years ago. But by and large on a typical day you'd find widely held Citigroup well ahead of the pack.
About six weeks ago that started to change. Apple was top of the heap more and more. Sure Apple had been up there on various Apple news days...a Steve Jobs appearance or iPhone debut or such. But now it was up there again and again—even on days that weren't particularly Apple worthy. Now we're seeing Apple as the top stock quote every day, even during market meltdown days.
I'd be willing to bet other business news sites are seeing something similar. Does it signal something more significant about investor attitudes and technology vs. industrial investments? Maybe. We'll see how long it holds. Investors, after all, can be fickle.
Maybe by the fall a different stock will be the front runner.
