- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway saw the value of its Apple stake drop by $9 billion on Tuesday.
- Apple shares fell 6% as stocks tanked, slashing the iPhone maker’s market cap by $154 billion.
- The one-day drop in Apple’s market value was the sixth-largest in US stock-market history.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway saw nearly $9 billion wiped off the value of its Apple stake on Tuesday, as the iPhone maker suffered one of the greatest single-day losses of market value in stock-market history.
The famed investor’s conglomerate owned nearly 895 million Apple shares at the last count, or about 5.6% of the technology company. Its position slumped in value from north of $146 billion to under $138 billion on Tuesday, as Apple’s stock price sunk by 6% to $154.
Apple’s stock plunge erased $154 billion from its market capitalization, cutting it from $2.63 trillion to $2.47 trillion. That one-day decline was the sixth-biggest ever for a US company, Bloomberg reported.
Facebook-owner Meta’s $251 billion wipeout in February topped the rankings, followed by Amazon’s $206 billion meltdown in April. Past Apple declines took the third and fifth spots, while Microsoft snagged fourth place for its $178 billion slump during the pandemic crash in March 2020.
Berkshire is Apple’s largest single shareholder, and Apple is the biggest holding in Berkshire’s US stock portfolio, accounting for roughly 40% of its total value.
Buffett’s company plowed about $36 billion into the technology company between 2016 and 2018, and has more than tripled its money on paper since then thanks to Apple’s stock gains. Moreover, Berkshire bought nearly 4 million more Apple shares in the second quarter of this year, suggesting Buffett and his team remain bullish on the stock.
Apple shares were down 15% for the year as of Tuesday’s close, outpacing a 7% decline in Berkshire’s “B” shares over the same period. Both stocks have outperformed the benchmark S&P 500 18% retreat this year.
The stock market tanked on Tuesday after new data showed a 0.1% month-on-month rise in the Consumer Price Index in August. The surprise increase in inflation dashed investors’ hopes of the Federal Reserve ending its interest-rate hikes in the near future, and stoked fears of a market downturn and a prolonged recession.
