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IT'S OFFICIAL: Apple is the first US company worth $1 trillion

Apple on Thursday become the first US company to be worth more than $1 trillion on a public stock market.

The company on Tuesday reported second-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street expectations, sending shares surging by more than 5% into Wednesday. The rally continued on Thursday, propelling shares to the magic number of $207.05 apiece.

That price translates to a $1 trillion market cap based on the current estimated number of outstanding shares.

In the nearly more than four decades since Steve Jobs founded the company in a California garage, Apple has become nearly synonymous with personal computing and mobile devices. After launching the iPhone - arguably its most famous product - in 2007, Apple now churns out over 40 million of the devices every quarter, helping it rake in $254.63 billion in revenue last year.

The stock market is seeing abnormally large moves this earnings season - Goldman Sachs explains why, and how traders can capitalize

Single-stock price fluctuations have been more extreme this earnings season than at any other point in the past eight quarters, Goldman Sachs says.

The firm attributes this to poor forecasting from Wall Street analysts that has been driven by unpredictable macro developments.

Goldman also offers four single-stock trades for the remainder of earnings season.

Kroger's battle with Visa is escalating

Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the US, is ending Visa credit card acceptance at 21 of its Foods Co supermarket subsidiaries and five gas stations in California, effective August 14, according to The Wall Street Journal . The stores will still accept Visa debit cards.

Kroger and Visa have been in an ongoing dispute. The companies have been battling over interchange fees, which are charged to merchants each time a customer makes transactions using a credit card. Kroger sued Visa in 2016 over debit card transactions, after Visa said that the retailer's EMV-enabled terminals didn't comply with Visa regulations.

Tesla's surging stock has cost short sellers $1.1 billion in a single day

Score one for Elon Musk .

The Tesla CEO, who has long been an outspoken critic of stock traders betting against his company, struck a blow on Thursday after second-quarter earnings sent shares soaring by as much as 11%.

That resulted in a mark-to-market loss of more than $1.1 billion for short sellers , according to data compiled by financial technology and analytics firm S3 Partners .

More here.

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