Putting Apple's Decline in Perspective

Apple's 10% decline today represents a $45B loss of market value, which is a larger amount than the market cap of 85% of the companies that make up the S&P 500.  $45B is roughly equivalent to the market value of COST, NKE or MDT.

Since its peak at $659B in September AAPL has lost $230B worth of value.  That's more than the market cap of all but seven US companies, nearly equal to the entire value of MSFT, CVX and GE!

In fact, AAPL's loss in market value has been so large so fast that it is entering the realm of macroeconomic proportions.  Since September, AAPL's market cap decline has been almost equal to the amount of money that the Fed has injected into the economy via QE3, which sits at ~$250B.

QE3 measured as increase in MBS/Treasuries at Fed plus commitments to buy MBS