By Dan Gallagher 

Microsoft's return as the world's most valuable company was short. But in the current market, Amazon.com shouldn't get too comfortable either.

After spending a little over a month on top, the software giant formally ceded its crown based on Monday's closing prices, which gave Amazon a total market value of about $797 billion compared with Microsoft's $784 billion. That is more reflective of Amazon's strong jump of 9% in the first week of the new year, compared with Microsoft's 1% gain in that time.

Of course, the Seattle neighbors both owe much to Apple Inc., which has managed to lose a breathtaking $355 billion in value over the past couple of months on worries about its slowing iPhone business.

The coming earnings season could shuffle things even more. Apple's last report is what first triggered its selloff, and even Amazon remains about 9% below its price since its own third-quarter results. Google-parent Alphabet Inc. is also now just about 5% below both Amazon and Microsoft in terms of market value. In tech, nothing lasts forever.

Write to Dan Gallagher at dan.gallagher@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 08, 2019 12:22 ET (17:22 GMT)

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