Amazon Briefly Becomes Wall Street's Most Valuable Company

SAN FRANCISCO, United States — Amazon briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street in intraday trade on Monday, days after Microsoft Corp dethroned long-time leader Apple.

Amazon rose as much as 4.7 percent, putting its market capitalisation at $865.0 billion. Apple was up 2.1 percent, giving it a market capitalisation of $864.8 billion.

Microsoft, which on Friday closed above Apple's market capitalisation for the first time in eight years, was up 0.9 percent, leaving its stock market value at $859.0 billion, third in the group.

The tight race between the trio of high-powered technology stocks coincided with a broad stock market rally after the United States and China agreed on a temporary trade truce.

Apple in August became the first US publicly-listed company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalisation, but the iPhone maker has fallen sharply in recent months as investors worried that demand for iPhones was losing steam.

Amazon's stock has recovered most of the ground it lost after the online retailer in October forecast disappointing sales for the holiday quarter, but it is still down about 13 percent from its September 4 record-high close.

Apple's market capitalisation overtook Microsoft's in 2010 as Microsoft struggled with slow demand for personal computers, due in part to the explosion of smartphones like the iPhone.

By Noel Randewich, editor: Rosalba O'Brien.