Five of the world's biggest tech companies lost a combined total of $260 billion in valuation on Thursday, with concerns of a second spike of coronavirus breaking out in the US.
Shares in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft dropped significantly after a plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average, largely in response to an increase in COVID-19 cases, according to CNBC.
Microsoft took the biggest hit, with losses of $80 billion and shares falling by more than 5%. Facebook stocks were also down by more than 5%, while Apple dropped by 4.8% and Google parent Alphabet went down by 4.29%. Amazon appeared to be the least affected, with shares only dropping by 3.38%.
Coming into 2020, four of these companies had surpassed the trillion-dollar valuation mark, with Facebook the only one not to have reached the milestone. The combined worth of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google was reportedly at $5 trillion before Thursday's slump.
With the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown, remote working and cloud-based technologies have taken on greater importance, giving the tech industry an advantage during the pandemic. But it hasn't been able to escape its economic impact.
Other US-based tech giants suffered steeper falls, with Cisco shares dropping 7.9% and IBM falling a massive 9.1%. Thursday's drop was the worst single-day performance in US stock values since March, as the coronavirus continues to worsen across the country. COVID cases have recently surpassed two million, according to reports, with an estimated death toll of 116,035.
Southern and Western states in the US, including Florida, Texas, California, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina have all recently seen spikes in new cases, adding to concerns that the US could be headed for another lockdown.
