Apple Now Biggest-Ever U.S. Company

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443855804577601773524745182.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Apple Inc. [AAPL -1.89%] surpassed Microsoft Corp. [MSFT +0.03%] Monday as the largest U.S. company ever, measured by stock-market value.

Apple hit the new milestone—$623.52 billion—at a time when its influence on the economy, on the stock market and on popular culture rivals that of some of the most powerful companies in U.S. history: General Motors Co., GM -1.01% whose Corvette and Impala typified a confident postwar manufacturing giant; Microsoft, whose technology heralded the arrival of the personal computer and the early Internet age; and International Business Machines Corp., IBM -0.68% whose buttoned-down rigor inspired rivals to reach for greatness.