For a brief period, Apple becomes the most valuable U.S. company

Apple earlier today briefly overtook ExxonMobil to become the most valuable U.S. company trading on U.S. markets. With a market cap of $341.5 billion, the Cupertino based company had a $100 million higher value than the New York based oil and gas company. What makes this an amazing achievement is that ExxonMobil brings in four times the annual revenue that Apple does.

It hasn't always been this way for Apple. The return of Steve Jobs and the quick success of the iMac followed by the iPod and the world-wide phenomenon called the Apple iPhone brought Apple's stock well into triple-digit territory. The Apple iPad simply added fuel to the fire and the company recently hit a 52 week high of $404.

While Apple has recently become the largest Global smartphone vendor, it is the anticipation of the coming next-gen version of the Apple iPhone that has added $20 billion to Apple's worth since July 1st. During the same time, ExxonMobile has lost $60 billion in market cap.

source: Reuters via IntoMobile