Apple Inc. (AAPL) Stock Reaches New Heights as iPhone Sales Boost US Economy

Apple Inc shares surged to new heights last week when stock price reached more than $104. According to reports, Apple's strong earnings report has proven to its investors that it is still an innovative company with new products customers still crave.

The stock market may have forgotten previous negative headlines that followed after Apple's release of the iPhone 6 Plus and iOS 8.0.1 update. CNN reports that Apple is rewarding its shareholders with almost 2 percent dividends which is a slightly lower rate for a U.S. 10-year Treasury bond. Billionaire activist and investor Carl Icahn has been urging the company to announce more share buybacks. Apple has been repurchasing its shares but not as much as Icahn wants. Reports said Apple still has $155 billion in cash to be used for new product research and development, acquisitions and other plans to bring more revenue and growth to the company.

Since Apple launched its new iPhones, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, customers have been ordering the devices faster than the company can make them. According to the New York Times, Apple's iPhone sales have created a positive impact on the U.S. economy while boosting the stock market. JP Morgan Chase chief economist Michael Feroli said iPhone sales have "a measurable impact." He explained that the iPhone may just be a gadget but has a high price tag that many consumers have bought. Based on Apple's official iPhone sales figures, the numbers will matter, Feroli said.

Feroli has estimated that iPhone sales have added one-fourth to one-third of a percentage point to the economy's annual GDP growth rate. As Apple disclosed in its earnings report, the company sells a combination of iPhone models with an average price of $603. The company has revealed it sold more than 39 million iPhones in the last quarter. Apple's pricing strategy is beneficial to the company's earnings as the cost of manufacturing a basic mobile phone has remained at $200 for years, said HIS Technology senior director for cost benchmarking Andrew Rassweiler.

With Apple becoming the world's most valuable brand as previously reported, the company is also the center of the stock market since it has the biggest market capitalization in the world with $617.9 billion. Reports said Apple has a 3.5 percent weighting of Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. Although the stock market last week did not perform well overall, Apple was responsible for the 18 percent of the increase in S&P 500 index based on the estimates of Bespoke Investment Group's Paul Hickey. Apple stock closed at $104.83 per share last Oct. 23 which was also a 7.2 percent increase for the week.