The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Apple on Friday became the first publicly traded company to close a trading day with a $3-trillion market value (all figures U.S.). An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe says that Apple shares closed up 2.3 per cent at $193.97, bringing its market value to $3.04-trillion. Apple is one of a handful of tech companies, including Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia, that helped drive the S&P 500 to a gain of nearly 16 per cent in the first half of the year. The 47-year-old company had briefly eclipsed a $3-trillion market value on back-to-back days in January, 2022, but could not hold on by the time the market closed. Instead, Apple's stock sunk into a prolonged descent that pushed its market value briefly below $2-trillion earlier this year amid a slowdown in growth and investor jitters about rising interest rates that affected the entire tech sector. Apple did not come close to the $3-trillion threshold again until earlier this month when the company unveiled what could be its next big product -- a high-priced virtual reality headset called Vision Pro. Three trillion dollars could buy the 50 most valuable sports teams in the world with plenty of change to spare.