14 DAY TRIAL // The coronavirus outbreak has caused a combined drop of over $400 billion in just one day for the five largest firms in the United States, according to a report.
Shares of Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, and Amazon fell massively on Thursday as their operations are impacted by measures supposed to reduce the risk of infection and economic concerns.
More specifically, Apple recorded the biggest drop on Thursday, as its shares fell no less than 9.88% in just one day. Microsoft was next with 9.48%, followed by Facebook with 9.30%. Alphabet and Amazon also fell, this time by 8.2% and 7.98%, respectively, according to a report from CNBC.
The four companies lost a combined $416 billion in value in just one single day, after another major drop reaching $320 billion was recorded on Monday.
Canceled events
The tech industry has been hit severely by the coronavirus outbreak, with the majority of companies already canceling several large events and moving to digital versions in an attempt to tackle the risk of infection.
Microsoft, for example, has recently announced that the Build conference, its largest annual event, would move to a digital version, with everything to be live-streamed online, instead of a classic conference that would have thousands of people traveling to Seattle.
“The safety of our community is a top priority. In light of the health safety recommendations for Washington State, we will deliver our annual Microsoft Build event for developers as a digital event, in lieu of an in-person event. We look forward to bringing together our ecosystem of developers in this new virtual format to learn, connect and code together. Stay tuned for more details to come,” Microsoft says. Google too has canceled events and moved to online conferences, and there’s a good chance the list of companies doing the same would increase as the coronavirus continues spread in the United States.