Apple shares closed at an all-time high Thursday, a day after the company unveiled the latest edition of its wildly popular iPhone.
Apple (AAPL) shares closed at $682.98 on Thursday, up 2%, after hitting an intra-day high of $685.50. Elsewhere in the tech world, Amazon (AMZN) shares also closed at an all-time high, and Google (GOOG) shares again pushed past the $700 mark, closing up 2.2% at $706.04.
It was a strong day for U.S. stocks in general following the Federal Reserve's announcement that it was launching a new round of quantitative easing. Apple, though, appears particularly well-positioned to sustain its momentum over the next few months as the iPhone 5 hits stores.
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Industry analysts are already predicting that the device will be the best-selling smartphone of all time. The stock also remains relatively cheap, trading at about 13 times what investors expect Apple to earn in its 2013 fiscal year.
![See Apple's iPhone 5 event in 90 seconds](https://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/120912073548-t-apple-iphone5-00002215-tablet-large.jpg)
Apple shares have climbed more than 66% so far this year. Contrast that to some of the firm's competitors in hardware like Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Dell (DELL), which have fallen 31% and 29%, respectively, in 2012.