Apple adds $191 BILLION in market value in a single day

Apple has added $191billion dollars in market value in a single day - the most ever by a US company.

Shares jumped 8.8 percent Thursday, adding $190.9billion to its total market capitalization and beating the prior record of $190.8billion by Amazon in February.

The latest staggering leap means the California-based firm holds four out of the top five daily gains on Wall Street of all time.

It came on a day investors surged back to the stock market after being buoyed by positive inflation data - with the dollar rising and Treasury bond yields dropping.

The Dow Jones was up 1,201 points, or 3.7 percent, at 33,715, the S&P 500 soared 5.54 percent and the Nasdaq roared up 7.35 percent.

But despite the boost for Apple, the company remains 18 percent down on the year due to rising inflation, interest rates and disruption caused by the Ukraine war.

Apple did not address the surge, with CEO TIm Cook only posting a message to veterans at the firm this morning

The latest staggering leap means the California-based firm holds four out of the top five daily gains on Wall Street of all time

Apple's market cap stood at $2.34 trillion at the close of trading Thursday, placing it well ahead of the world's three other trillion-dollar firms - Saudi Aramco ($2trillion), Microsoft ($1.8trillion) and Alphabet ($1.2trillion).

Market capitalization refers to the total dollar value of all a company's outstanding shares, and is one of the methods used to measure a company's worth.

Apple did not address the surge, with CEO TIm Cook only posting a message to veterans at the firm this morning.

He wrote: 'We owe a debt we can never repay to our nation's veterans, service members, and their families.'

He added: 'To all the veterans at Apple and beyond, thank you for your service and sacrifice.'

The Nasdaq led a rally on Wall Street's main indexes as signs of cooling consumer prices in October raised hopes the Fed would scale down interest-rate hikes.

The benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq saw their biggest percentage gain since April 2020 as the latest inflation data cheered investors.

The Labor Department's data pointed to strongest signs yet price pressures were starting to subside, with the CPI number below 8 percent for the first time in eight months.

Growing recession worries have pushed the three main indexes into bear market this year, with the S&P 500 down 17.8 percent and still on course for its worst annual performance since 2008.

Mike Zigmont, head of trading and research at Harvest Volatility Management, said: 'It's very good news for future Fed policy and indicates that what the Fed has been doing has been appropriate.'

The inflation data prompted traders to adjust their rate hike bets, with odds of a 50-basis point rate hike in December jumping to 73.5 percent from 52 percent before the data was released.

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan welcomed the 'good news' on inflation, but said the fight with rising prices is far from over.

The CBOE volatility index, also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, fell to a near two-month low of 23.19 points.

Growth and technology-related stocks provided a big boost to the markets with heavyweight Microsoft Corp - as well as Apple Inc - adding over 6.5 percent each.

Amazon.com Inc surged 12.2 percent after a media report said the e-commerce giant was reviewing unprofitable business units, including the devices unit, to cut costs.

The October CPI report showed inflation at 7.7 percent, less than economists expected, raising hopes that the Fed will slow its rate hikes

Thursday's dizzying gains followed the latest consumer price index report showing annual inflation dipped for the fourth-straight month in October

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 959.59 points, or 2.95 percent, at 33,473.53, the S&P 500 was up 172.53 points, or 4.60 percent, at 3,921.10, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 631.19 points, or 6.10 percent, at 10,984.36.

Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist at BMO Wealth Management, said: 'It would take a lot more in coming months for the Fed to make an actual dovish pivot rather than stick to its 'higher for longer' recent messaging.'

The PHLX Housing index gained 10.2 percent to its highest level in two months after getting battered this year on concerns about higher mortgage rates denting affordability.

The Russell 2000 index of small cap companies climbed 5.5 percent.

Rivian Automotive Inc jumped 17 percent after the electric-vehicle maker reported a smaller-than-expected loss, higher number of pre-orders and reaffirmed its full-year production outlook.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 9.96-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 4.92-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 17 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 92 new highs and 128 new lows.

Apple IS watching you! Tech giant collects data about users from its own pre-installed apps - including what stocks you watch - even when your iPhone says it isn't, study reveals

Apple may not be the pro-privacy company it so proudly proclaims to be. 

A new study finds the tech giant is collecting data on its customers while they use its apps, even when they have turned off analytics sharing.

The discovery was made by two developers who found the tech giant is recording your every move in their own pre-installed App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, Books and Stocks apps. 

These apps were found to send Apple requests that include what apps a user looked at, including those relating to sexual preference and religion, the stocks they are watching and what advertisements they saw.

The data collection also includes ID numbers and the type of device used, which is enough for device fingerprinting.

The study comes just a little over a year since Apple released its controversial privacy control that required iPhone users to give permission for apps to track their activity for advertising purposes, which dug into revenues of many companies and developers that relied on advertising.

It is not clear why Apple is backtracking on its pro-privacy stance, but it recently added advertisements to the App Store app and the data collection could be a way to better understand how their ads are working.

The independent study was conducted by a pair of software developers who found Apple is recording your every move in its built-in apps, including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, Books and Stocks

Apple Device & Privacy support page states that it must have consent from the user to collect such information from devices.

'None of the collected information identifies you personally,' the page reads.

'Personal data is either not logged at all, is subject to privacy preserving techniques such as differential privacy, or is removed from any reports before they're sent to Apple.'

DailyMail.com has contacted Apple for comment.

Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry, the security researchers who uncovered the data collection, posted videos on Twitter showing how the information is stored by Apple.

The team, however, notes in a video about their study that 'the behavior of iOS 16 is likely to be the same.' The video shows a screen with several requests, all time stamped, that are sent to Apple from the App Store app

The data in a single request shows Apple is collecting ID numbers that can identify the user

This was only found in iOS 14.6 - 'It's unclear if Apple still collects analytics data in iOS 16,' the team shared in a tweet posted to their company account, Mysk.

The team, however, notes in a video about their study that 'the behavior of iOS 16 is likely to be the same.'

The video shows a screen with several requests, all time stamped, that are sent to Apple from the App Store app.

The requests are each time the user was in the App Store app. 

Within a single request are redacted IDs that can identify the session and map it to the user's data profile.

Also hiding in the collection of data is the user's device that is being used.

The example shown in the video shows the person is using an 'iPhone 10'.

Also hiding in the collection of data is the user's device that is being used. The example shown in the video shows the person is using an 'iPhone 10'

The request also shows the user viewed the app Daily Themed Crossword Puzzles while searching through the App Store and how long they spent looking at it

The video also shows the user viewed the app Daily Themed Crossword Puzzles while searching through the App Store and how long they spent looking at it.

While a crossword puzzle app might sound harmless, Gizmodo provides a more serious reason why Apple's data collection should not be ignored.

If you are searching for mental health, sexual orientation and religious apps in the App Store, this data is sent directly to the tech giant's servers and stored - some of this may be sensitive information for some people.

The researchers conducted similar testing with the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge apps and found that when the analytic sharing is disabled the apps cannot collect data from the device.

Not only is collecting data without consent a serious issue, but Apple positions itself as a company that respects its user's privacy.

Apple rolled out the privacy control feature in 2021, which CEO Tim Cook said is giving people back the power to decide which companies and developers can track them - but it seems Apple is above its own values

On its Privacy page, the tech giant clearly shares: 'Privacy is a fundamental human right. It's also one of our core values. Which is why we design our products and services to protect it. That's the kind of innovation we believe in.'

The findings also suggest that Apple is more of a 'do what I say and not as I do' type of company, as its privacy controls penalized many companies and developers for collecting similar data on users.

The control appeared as a full-screen notification that asked users if they consent to being tracked 'across apps and websites owned by other companies'. 

Those ads in large part paid the bills for Facebook and other app makers, publishers and small businesses. 

But Apple CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly defended the update, which was part of Apple's iOS14 operating system, arguing it was necessary because targeted advertising is 'manipulating' people and being served to their devices without their explicit permission.