Apple (Briefly) Claims the Title of World's Most Valuable Company

For a brief moment on Tuesday afternoon, Apple Inc. was the world's most valuable company.

Over the past 2 1/2 years, Apple has gone on an absolute tear, rising from less than $100/share up to its current level of $374.01. During this run, Apple has passed companies such as Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway and Wal-Mart when it comes to total market capitalization.

Apple's torrid run has been fuelled by the unbelievable popularity of products such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod. Despite a weak global economy, consumers have continued to lap up any and all of the new product offerings from Cupertino, California.

Apple has been chasing down Exxon Mobil for a while now. Just a few short month ago, Exxon Mobil was worth roughly $50 billion more than Apple Inc.

On Tuesday, thanks to a wildly fluctuating market, Apple Inc. finally caught up to Exxon Mobil, if only for a few seconds.

By the time that trading had closed on Tuesday afternoon, the market caps of Apple and Exxon Mobil looked like this:

AAPL - $346.74 billion
XOM - $352.90 billion

Now let's look at the market caps of both companies during the last week of 2008:

AAPL - $84.13 billion
XOM - $393.2 billion

Apple has closed the gap by over $300 BILLION in less than three years - that is simply stunning.

Can Apple pass Exxon Mobil once and for all? We'll find out over the coming weeks and months..

Keep reading