<p>Tech giants Apple and Microsoft remained the top two global companies by market capitalisation at the end of July after riding this year's rally in technology shares.</p>.<p>Apple last month became the first company in the world to reach a market value of $3 trillion, buoyed by hopes over its expansion in new markets and expectations for more moderate US interest rate hikes.</p>.<p>Strong quarterly earnings from companies such as Alphabet, Meta Platforms, chipmaker Intel and chip equipment maker Lam Research lifted overall market sentiment last month.</p>.<p>Facebook-owner Meta's market cap jumped more than 10% in July, thanks to the company's rosy revenue forecast and robust ad revenue growth in the second quarter.</p>.<p>Microsoft also beat Wall Street estimates for its fiscal fourth-quarter revenue, driven by growth in its cloud computing and office software businesses, although its share price slipped back 1.4% in July after it also laid out an aggressive spending plan to meet demand for artificial intelligence services.</p>.<p>Its market cap stood at $2.49 trillion at the end of July.</p>.<p>Apple is due to announce its earnings for the April-June quarter on Thursday.</p>.<p>"We continue to strongly believe a new tech bull market has started this year, and we believe the AI Gold Rush is a "1995 Moment" akin to the start of the Internet and NOT a 1999/2000 Bubble Moment," said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a note last week.</p>.<p>In the financial sector, JP Morgan Chase's market cap grew about 8.6% last month, as the largest U.S. lender earned more from borrowers' interest payments and benefited from the purchase of First Republic Bank.</p>.<p>Refinitiv data shows 69% of large- and mid-cap U.S. companies have surpassed analysts' Q2 earnings estimates so far, with the tech sector accounting for 82% of these positive surprises.</p>
<p>Tech giants Apple and Microsoft remained the top two global companies by market capitalisation at the end of July after riding this year's rally in technology shares.</p>.<p>Apple last month became the first company in the world to reach a market value of $3 trillion, buoyed by hopes over its expansion in new markets and expectations for more moderate US interest rate hikes.</p>.<p>Strong quarterly earnings from companies such as Alphabet, Meta Platforms, chipmaker Intel and chip equipment maker Lam Research lifted overall market sentiment last month.</p>.<p>Facebook-owner Meta's market cap jumped more than 10% in July, thanks to the company's rosy revenue forecast and robust ad revenue growth in the second quarter.</p>.<p>Microsoft also beat Wall Street estimates for its fiscal fourth-quarter revenue, driven by growth in its cloud computing and office software businesses, although its share price slipped back 1.4% in July after it also laid out an aggressive spending plan to meet demand for artificial intelligence services.</p>.<p>Its market cap stood at $2.49 trillion at the end of July.</p>.<p>Apple is due to announce its earnings for the April-June quarter on Thursday.</p>.<p>"We continue to strongly believe a new tech bull market has started this year, and we believe the AI Gold Rush is a "1995 Moment" akin to the start of the Internet and NOT a 1999/2000 Bubble Moment," said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a note last week.</p>.<p>In the financial sector, JP Morgan Chase's market cap grew about 8.6% last month, as the largest U.S. lender earned more from borrowers' interest payments and benefited from the purchase of First Republic Bank.</p>.<p>Refinitiv data shows 69% of large- and mid-cap U.S. companies have surpassed analysts' Q2 earnings estimates so far, with the tech sector accounting for 82% of these positive surprises.</p>