Trump took a $1tn bite out of Apple will it recover? -

Apple was almost a 3.7 trillion company just three months ago but Donald Trump’s tariffs have played a big part in the most valuable company on the planet seeing its valuation slashed by a trillion dollars.

- KARL MATCHETT

On 2 January, a $243.85 share price gave a total market capitalisation of $3.69 trillion (£2.88 trillion) to the iPhone maker. That share price has since cratered; general uncertainty around Donald Trump’s policies, the prospect of stagnant global growth, and later the reality of the tariffs have all seen equities around the globe sink.

Apple hasn’t been immune and in many ways has been harder hit than some; minutes after the US markets opened on Monday, it was apparent that it would continue to see its share price fall: a 5 per cent dip left the stock at $176 briefly, before clawing back ground above $180.

Whichever way you look at it and whenever the real recovery starts, a quarter of the share price disintegrating or a 27 per cent reduction in market cap is a wild fall for a flagship organisation in the nation that those same tariff policies are designed to enrich.

So why has Apple been so impacted by the tariffs? And what can the company do, if anything, to mitigate them?