WASHINGTON: Apple Inc crossed $3 trillion in market value in early trading on Tuesday before slipping, after the world’s most valuable company briefly hit the milestone a day earlier.

The iPhone maker’s shares rose to as much as $182.94 after opening flat at $182.63. Shares need to finish above $182.86 level to record the milestone on a closing basis.

Apple contracts were the second most actively traded U.S. stock options on Tuesday after Tesla Inc, according to the Options Clearing Corp (OCC) data as of 08:21 a.m. ET. The contract with the highest open interest is Jan. 20th call option with a strike price of $200, Refinitiv data showed.

Apple accounts for nearly 7% of S&P 500 index’s value, according to Refinitiv data, the highest for a single stock on the index at a time when the benchmark is perched at a peak.

The pandemic fueled demand for iPhones, MacBooks and iPads helped push the company’s market capitalization past $2 trillion in August 2020 and add another trillion 16 months later.

“Apple has been one of the key pandemic trades for a lot of people and as we exit the pandemic... the iPhone maker is going to struggle a little bit,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda in New York.