Apple and Google see $53bn wiped off shares in a week Apple shares hit a historic high last Tuesday, opening at $644, but have since dropped more than 8pc. The decline, that saw a drop of more than 4pc last week, accelerated on Monday as Apple fell another 3pc to $585.7 in morning trading in New York. Meanwhile, Google shares fell more than 4pc last Friday and a further 3pc on Monday, despite announcing a 61pc increase in its first-quarter profits to nearly $3bn last week. The falls mark a shift in gear for Apple and Google, which have both seen sustained growth over the past year. Google has climbed nearly 15pc in 12 months, while Apple has surged by nearly 80pc, briefly topping a market capitalisation of $600bn and becoming the biggest company in the world. Earlier this month an analyst set a $1,001-a-share target price on the coveted stock. Analysts said their decline was likely to be temporary but indicated a dampening of the optimism that has propelled both upwards. They put the drop in Apple's share price down to factors including its legal row with the US Department of Justice over an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of ebooks and rumours of a cut-price iPad, which could potentially cannibalise sales of its full-price version. Brian Marshall at International Strategy and Investment Group said Apple was also "collapsing a little under its own weight." The vertical ascent of Apple has been Herculean so it makes sense to have a pause for thought. People with itchy trigger fingers shoot first and ask questions later," he said. The reason for the drop in Google's shares was harder to pinpoint, but some analysts pointed to "growing negative sentiment" about its dual class share structure, announced on Thursday last week. Despite the slides, Apple's new iPad helped to drive an increase in US sales last month, fuelling better-than-expected growth of 0.8pc in March.