Apple Briefly Reclaims World's Most Valuable Company Title After HSBC Upgrade

According to CNBC, stocks fell Friday as renewed concerns about artificial intelligence spending pressured technology shares and extended a weeklong pullback in semiconductor stocks, while the VanEck Semiconductor ETF briefly entered bear market territory before recovering some losses. Portfolio director Jeff Marks said the decline reflected forced selling and profit-taking rather than any deterioration in the AI theme, and said recent trims in Corning and an exit from Arm helped cushion the move and left cash available for new opportunities. Apple briefly moved ahead of Nvidia to reclaim the title of the world's most valuable company after HSBC upgraded the stock to buy and raised its price target to $366 from $260, citing Apple Intelligence, new AI features, expected product launches and the company's partnership with Alphabet. Marks also pointed to Apple's approval of Apple Intelligence on devices in China as another catalyst. Intel, which reports earnings next week, has fallen more than 30% this month as investors rotated out of semiconductor stocks.