For a brief period Apple’s stock market capitalization rate hit the US$600 billion mark this Tuesday.  Apple is by far the largest stock by market capitalization in the world now, but the previous record was held by Microsoft.

"Amazingly, that is only about 3% higher for Apple and we are talking about a company where the shares have rallied a whopping 58% since the start of 2012.," says "24/7 Wall Street" (http://macte.ch/PiJmi). "Microsoft is also up big this year so far, but its current market capitalization rate is 'only' $260 billion and that is less than half of the value of Apple now.  Exxon Mobil Corporation is the second largest company by market capitalization with a market cap of $390 million.  So Apple is worth 1.5-times the value of Exxon Mobil."