Google parent Alphabet hits rare heights only reached by Apple and two others

The first time that something momentous happens, people go nuts and the moment is celebrated forever. The second time that the same thing takes place, the excitement is toned down although the achievement is still considered a big deal. But after that, when the same event takes place, it is as though no one cares. For example, everyone alive at the time remembers watching Neil Armstrong take that historic step on the moon and saying "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." But can anyone remember the second trip to the moon? By the time the lunar module from the sixth mission had touched down on the surface of the moon, hardly anyone looked up from their newspaper to watch it (if you don't know what a newspaper is, Google it).

So why bring this up now? Fair question. We could say it is because the average smartphone packs more power than the astronauts had at their command back in 1969. While that is an accurate statement, it isn't the reason for this article. Actually, we'd like to take you back to August 2nd, 2018. On that date, Apple became the first U.S. publicly-traded company to reach a valuation of $1 trillion. At the time, it seemed like a big deal especially since some expected Amazon to reach the milestone first. And sure enough, almost exactly a month later Amazon joined Apple in the Trillion Dollar Club.

Both Apple and Amazon embarked on serious corrections after reaching the one trillion dollar target. For example, Apple's stock price declined 35% from August 31st, 2018 to January 4th, 2019. And ironically, by year-end 2018, neither Apple or Amazon was the most valuable public company in the U.S. That title belonged to Microsoft which also joined the trillion-dollar club in April of last year.

Today, the trillion-dollar club welcomed a new company and it shouldn't be too hard to figure out the name of the new member. Google parent Alphabet hit the magic number today and analysts credited the appointment of Sundar Pichai as the company's CEO as the reason for the stock's recent surge. Pichai replaced Google co-founder Larry Page who stepped down as Alphabet CEO last month. Since Page left his executive post at Alphabet on December 4th, the company's shares have soared 10%.

Currently, the most valuable publicly traded U.S. companies are all tech-related firms. Apple currently has a market capitalization of $1.38 trillion followed by Microsoft's $1.27 trillion. Amazon has dropped under the threshold and is currently valued at $931 billion as the company looks up at the $1 trillion valuation currently owned by Alphabet.