Shares of Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.20% bulled up 2.0% into record territory in afternoon trading Monday, enough to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s DJIA, +0.43% gainers. The technology behemoth’s stock has now run up 5.9% amid a four-day win streak, and was currently headed for a close above the Dec. 10 record of $179.45. A record close on Monday would be the stock’s 24th record close in 2021. Meanwhile, the Dow was up 265 points, or 0.7%, but was still just below its Nov. 8 record close of 36,432.22. Apple’s stock rally has extended Apple’s lead as the most valuable U.S. company, with a market capitalization of $2.95 trillion. Shares of second-place Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -0.16% are up 1.9% in afternoon trading, to give the software giant a market cap of $2.56 trillion; the record close was $343.11 on Nov. 19.
