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Comment by myth_buster | Hacker News Reader

WaPo: Global markets plunge on oil/China fears.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/01/20/n...

To add more context to this -- the markets have been sliding since Sunday due to Chinese intervention in the markets (including raising RMB reserves for Chinese banks), and there is a lot of shakeup expected from the lifting of Iranian sanctions and the Saudi Aramco IPO internal debate (could be largest IPO in history and it would be company with the largest market cap in history, yes bigger than Apple's).

The environment should stabilize by 2016Q2.

> it would be company with the largest market cap in history, yes bigger than Apple

Apple is not remotely the largest company in history, when adjusted for inflation. The The Dutch East India Company, for instance, was worth over 7 trillion dollars at one point. Likewise, Standard Oil held a monopoly on all the USA's oil at one point and certainly had a several trillion dollar valuation.

Saudi Aramco will be massive, certainly. But not without precedent in history.

There was an article in The Guardian this past weekend about Saudi Aramco which estimated it's value at $10tn, which would definitely put it in a league of it's own when it comes to total value.

Saudi Aramco – the $10tn mystery at the heart of the Gulf state - http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/16/saudi-aramco...

> The environment should stabilize by 2016Q2.

Don't hold your breath.

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